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OLD   BOSTON   IN  COLONIAL   DAYS 

OR,    ST.    BOTOLPH'S   TOWN 

FROM  THE    TIME   OF  BLACKSTONE,    THE 

FIRST  SETTLER,    TO   THE  OUTBREAK 

OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION 


Works  of 

Mary  Caroline  Crawford 

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Old  New  England  Rooftrees 

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THE    PAGE    COMPANY 

53  Beaton  Street,  Boston,   Mass. 

Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson  in  the  Audience  Chamber 
of  the  Province  House 

From  a  painting  by  Frank  T.  Merrill 


<&Vb  Boston  in  Colonial 
Baps; 

From  the  Time  of  Blackstone,  the  First  Settler,  to  the 

Outbreak  °f  the  American  Revolution 

BY 

MARY  CAROLINE   CRAWFORD 

Author  of  "Among  Old  New  England  Inn6,"    "The 
Romance  of  Old  New  England  Rooftrees."  etc 

Illustrated 


BOSTON 
THE   PAGE  COMPANY 

MDCCCCXXII 


.lUUllUUsUyUilUUiL 


Copyright,  1908 
By  The  Page  Company 

All  rights  reserved 


Made  in  U.  S.  A. 


PRINTED   BY    C.  H.  SIMONDS    COMPANY 
BOSTON,  MASS.,  U.S.A. 


FOREWORD 


In  my  student  days  colonial  history  never 
interested  me.  I  did  not  then  understand  why 
but  I  am  now  perfectly  certain  that  it  was  be- 
cause persons  and  events  were  discussed,  in 
most  of  the  books  set  before  me,  only  as  their 
careers  touched  New  England  and  hence  in  so 
fragmentary  a  way  as  to  make  them  appear 
mere  puppets  with  tiresome  dates  attached. 
The  treatment  usually  accorded  Sir  Harry 
Vane  offers  an  excellent  example  of  what  I 
mean.  He  flashed  before  us,  in  the  history 
books,  as  a  brilliant,  handsome  youth  who 
espoused  the  cause  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  —  and 
then  disappeared  for  ever  from  view.  Because 
his  wonderful  career  in  England  was  deemed 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  subsequent  his- 
tory of  Massachusetts  we  were  deprived  of  the 
great  privilege  it  would  have  been  to  make  his 
inspiring  life-story  a  part  of  our  mental  equip- 
ment !    If  this  volume  errs  in  the  other  extreme 


2( 


vi  Foreword 

by  talking  over-much  of  Vane  and  of  La  Tour 
after  their  connection  with  Boston  has  ceased 
the  fault  may  be  attributed  to  a  reaction  from 
my  own  defective  education. 

The  truth  is  that  it  is  biography  rather 
than  history  which  really  allures  me;  history 
seems  to  me  worse  than  useless  unless  it  illus- 
trates the  times  of  which  it  writes  as  those 
times  affected  the  lives  of  its  men  and  women. 
A  book  like  this  has  no  justification,  to  my 
mind,  save  as  it  makes  us  understand  just  a 
little  better  the  part  New  England,  in  the  per- 
son of  its  chief  town,  has  played  in  the  mighty 
drama  of  nations  made  up  of  thinking,  feeling 
men  and  women. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  Eevolution,  of  course, 
Boston  was  the  biggest  place  in  all  the  colonies 
as  well  as  the  chief  settlement  of  Massachu- 
setts. This  numerical  preeminence  needs  to  be 
borne  in  mind  if  we  would  understand  many 
acts  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean.  To  understand 
the  America  of  to-day,  too,  we  must  needs  know 
the  Boston  of  the  fathers.  So  only  can  we  be 
sure  that  the  excrescences  of  modern  govern- 
ment are  no  essential  part  of  that  Christian 
state  of  which  Winthrop  dreamed  and  for 
which  Vane  was  glad  to  die. 

The  books  consulted  in  the  preparation  of 


Foreword  vii 

this  work  have  been  many  and,  for  the  most 
part,  are  named  in  the  text.  But  sweeping 
credit  is  here  due  to  the  invaluable  "  Memorial 
History  of  Boston  "  and  to  the  "  Boston  An- 
tiquities "  of  Samuel  Drake.  I  have  to  thank 
also  Mr.  Irwin  C.  Cromack  of  the  engineering 
department,  City  of  Boston,  for  kindly  aid 
given  and  the  editor  of  the  Canadian  Magazine 
for  permission  to  incorporate  in  the  chapter 
"  How  Winthrop  Treated  With  the  La  Tours  " 
my  article  on  the  "  Fight  Between  La  Tour 
and  D'Aulnay  "  contributed  to  his  magazine 
last  year.  m.  c.  c. 


"  Q*T.  BOTOLPE'S    Town!  Far  over  leagues  of 
^J        land 

And  leagues  of  sea  looks  forth  its  noble  tower, 
And  far  around  the  chiming  bells  are  heard  : 
So  may  that  sacred  name  forever  stand 
A  landmark  and  a  symbol  of  the  power 
That  lies  concentred  in  a  single  word." 

—  Longfellow. 

"  r  I  1EE  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  settlement 
_/  of  the  English  colonists  in  America  is  the  in- 
troduction of  the  civilization  of  Europe  into  a 
wilderness  without  bringing  with  it  the  political  insti- 
tutions of  Europe.  The  arts,  sciences,  and  literature 
of  England  came  over  with  the  settlers.  .  .  .  But  the 
monarchy  did  not  come,  nor  the  aristocracy,  nor  the 
church  as  an  estate  of  the  realm.  Political  institu- 
tions were  to  be  framed  anew  such  as  slwuld  be 
adapted  to  the  state  of  things.'''1  — Daniel  Webster. 


"  rT^HE  spirit  of  that  age  was  sure  to  manifest 
£  itself  in  narrow  cramping  measures  and  in  ugly 
acts  of  persecution  ;  but  it  is,  none  the  less,  to 
the  fortunate  alliance  of  that  fervid  religious  enthu- 
siasm with  the  love  of  self-government  that  our  modern 
freedom  owes  its  existence.''''  —  John  Fiske. 


"  nr^ROU,  too,  sail  on  O  ship  of  State! 

£        Sail  on,  0  Union,  strong  and  great  I 
Humanity  with  all  its  fears, 
With  all  the  hopes  of  future  years 

Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate  I "  —  Longfellow. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

page 

I. 

As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning 

1 

II. 

John  Winthrop  and  Margaret,  His  Wif 

E         .          17 

III. 

St.    Botolph's    Town    in    Old    England 

AND 

New 

34 

IV. 

The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light 

.       48 

V. 

Sir  Harry  Vane  —  Prophet  and  Martyr 

63 

VI. 

How  Winthrop  Treated  with  the   La  1 

'ours      89 

VII. 

Freedom  to  Worship  God 

108 

VIII. 

Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It 

.     138 

IX. 

The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers     . 

.     165 

X. 

The  College  at  Cambridge  . 

205 

XI. 

The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood 

.     233 

XII. 

XIII. 

In  the  Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors 

.     283 

XIV. 

XV. 

The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance 

.     333 

PAGE 

Lieutenant-Governor   Hutchinson   in   the   Audience 
Chamber  of  the  Province  House  .       .       .     Frontispiece 

Captain  John  Smith 4 

Old  House  in  Medford,  Built  by  Governor  Cradock  12 

Governor  John  Winthrop 18 

St.  Botolph's  Church,  Boston,  England        ...  40 

John  Cotton's  Vicarage 43 

Rev.  John  Cotton 56 

Cotton  Chapel,  St.  Botolph's,  Boston,   England       .  60 

Sir  Harry  Vane,  From  an  old  Miniature     ...  66 

John  Endicott 72 

Oliver  Cromwell 80 

Sir  Harry  Vane's  House,  Still  Standing  in  Hampstead, 

London 86 

Fort  La  Tour  (or  St.  Jean),  St.  John,  New  Brunswick, 

From  a  drawing  by  Louis  A.  Holman     .       .       .  102 

Roger  Williams 118 

The  Wells  -  Adams  House,  on  Salem  Street,  where 

the  Baptists  held  secret  meetings  ....  121 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall 134 

Governor  Simon  Bradstreet 147 

Increase  Mather 106 

House  of  Cotton  Mather,  which  stood  at  what  is  now 

298  Hanover  Street 172 


xii  List  of  Illustrations 

PAGH 

Sir  Edmund  Andros 178 

The  Pratt  House,  Chelsea 186 

Sir  William  Phips 193 

Cotton  Mather 197 

William  Stoughton 200 

Cover  and  Title-page  of  John  Harvard's  Book  .       .  206 
Massachusetts    Hall,    Harvard    University,     Built 

during  the  Presidency  of  John  Leverett     .       .  225 

Governor  Joseph  Dudley 230 

Map  of  Boston  in  1722 Facing  232 

Benjamin  Franklin 234 

The  Old  Feather  Store 236 

Franklin's  Birthplace 238 

Samuel  Sewall 255 

The  Deane  Winthrop  House,  Winthrop        .       .       .  263 

Governor  Bellingham's  House,  Chelsea        .       .       .  265 

Green  Dragon  Tavern 273 

The  Province  House 286 

The  Original  King's  Chapel  and  the  King's  Chapel 

of  To-day 298 

Governor  William  Burnet 303 

The  Mather  Tomb  in  the  Copp's  Hill  Burying  Ground  310 

Governor  William  Shirley 312 

Sir  Harry  Frankland 316 

Governor  Shirley's  House,  Roxbury      .       .       .       .319 
The  Clarke  House,  Purchased  by  Sir  Harry  Frank- 
land     325 

Governor  Pownall 334 

Sir  Francis  Bernard     ....               ...  336 

James  Otis 339 

The  Old  State  House           350 

Peter  Faneuil's  House    • 356 

Samuel  Adams  ...               358 


OLD  BOSTON  IN  COLONIAL 
DAYS: 

OR,  ST.  BOTOLPH'S  TOWN 


AS   IT    WAS   IN    THE   BEGINNING 

To  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  the  intimate 
friend  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  a  man  of 
much  more  than  common  interest  in  the  history 
of  Elizabethan  England,  is  due  the  credit  of 
the  first  enduring  settlement  in  the  environs 
of  Boston.  John  Smith  had  skirted  the  coast 
of  New  England  and  looked  with  some  care 
into  Boston  Harbour  before  Gorges  came; 
Miles  Standish  had  pushed  up  from  Plymouth 
to  trade  with  the  Indians  of  this  section;  and 
Thomas  Weston,  soldier  of  fortune,  had  es- 
tablished a  temporary  trading-post  in  what  is 
now  Weymouth.  But  it  remained  for  Gorges 
and  his  son  Robert  to  plant  firmly  upon  our 
shores  the  standard  of  England  and  to  reiter- 
ate that  that  was  the   country  to   which,  by 

1 


St.  Botolph's  Town 


virtue  of  the  Cabots,  those  shores  rightly  be- 
longed. 

The  Cabots,  to  be  sure,  had  come  a  century 
and  a  quarter  before  and,  since  their  time,  ex- 
plorers of  several  other  nations  had  ventured 
to  the  new  world  —  one  of  them  even  going  so 
far  as  to  carve  his  name  upon  the  continent. 
But  an  English  king  had  fitted  out  the  "  car- 
vels "  of  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot;  and  Eng- 
lish kings  were  not  in  the  habit  of  forgetting 
incidents  of  that  sort.  The  letter  in  which 
Sebastian  Cabot  relates  the  story  of  those  Bris- 
tol vessels  is  very  quaint  and  interesting. 
"  When  my  father,"  he  writes,  "  departed 
from  Venice  many  yeers  since  to  dwell  in  Eng- 
land, to  follow  the  trade  of  merchandizes,  he 
took  me  with  him  to  the  city  of  London,  while 
I  was  very  yong,  yet  having,  nevertheless,  some 
knowledge  of  letters,  of  humanity  and  of  the 
Sphere.  And  when  my  father  died  in  that 
time  when  news  was  brought  that  Don  Chris- 
tofer  Colonus  Genuse  [Columbus]  had  discov- 
ered the  coasts  of  India  whereof  was  great 
talke  in  all  the  court  of  King  Henry  the 
Seventh,  who  then  raigned,  inso  much  that  all 
men  with  great  admiration  affirmed  it  to  be 
a  thing  more  divine  than  humane,  to  sail  by 
the  West  into  the  East  where  spices  growe,  by 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning  3 

a  way  that  was  never  known  before;  by  this 
fame  and  report  there  increased  in  my  heart  a 
great  flame  of  desire  to  attempt  some  notable 
thing.  And,  understanding  by  reason  of  the 
Sphere,  that  if  I  should  saile  by  way  of  the 
Northwest  winde,  I  should  by  a  shorter  track 
come  into  India,  I  thereupon  caused  the  king 
to  be  advertised  of  my  devise,  who  immediately 
commanded  two  Carvels  to  bee  furnished  with 
all  things  appertaining  to  the  voiage,  which 
was,  as  farre  as  I  remember,  in  the  yeere  1496, 
in  the  beginning  of  Sommer. 

"  I  began  therefore  to  saile  toward  the 
Northwest,  not  thinking  to  find  any  other  land 
than  that  of  Cathay,  and  from  thence  to  turn 
toward  India,  but  after  certaine  dayes  I  found 
that  the  land  ranne  towards  the  North,  which 
was  to  me  a  great  displeasure.  Nevertheless, 
sailing  along  the  coast  to  see  if  I  could  find  any 
gulfe  that  turned,  I  found  the  land  still  con- 
tinuing to  the  56  deg.  under  our  pole.  And 
seeing  that  there  the  coast  turned  toward  the 
East,  despairing  to  find  the  passage,  I  turned 
back  again,  and  sailed  down  by  the  coast  of 
that  land  towards  the  Equinoctiall  (ever  with 
intent  to  find  the  said  passage  to  India)  and 
came  to  that  part  of  this  firme  land  which  is 
now  called  Florida,  where  my  victuals  failing,  I 


St.  Botolph's  Town 


departed  from  thence  and  returned  into  Eng- 
land, where  I  found  great  tumults  among  the 
people,  and  preparation  for  warrs  in  Scotland : 
by  reason  whereof  there  was  no  more  consid- 
eration had  to  this  voyage."  But  barren  of 
immediate  results  as  this  voyage  undoubtedly 
was  it  is  of  immense  importance  to  us  as  the 
first  link  in  the  chain  which,  for  so  long,  bound 
America  to  England. 

The  next  link  was,  of  course,  forged  by  Cap- 
tain John  Smith  to  whom  New  England  as  well 
as  Virginia  owes  more  than  it  can  ever  repay. 
About  one  year  before  the  settlement  of  Boston 
by  the  company  which  came  with  Winthrop 
Smith  recapitulated  the  affairs  of  New  Eng- 
land in  the  following  lucid  manner:  "  When 
I  went  first  to  the  North  part  of  Virginia,  [in 
1614]  where  the  Westerly  colony  [of  1607]  had 
been  planted,  which  had  dissolved  itself  within 
a  yeare,  there  was  not  one  Christian  in  all  the 
land.  The  country  was  then  reputed  a  most 
rockie  barren,  desolate  desart;  but  the  good 
return  I  brought  from  thence,  with  the  maps 
and  relations  I  made  of  the  country,  which  I 
made  so  manifest,  some  of  them  did  beleeve 
me,  and  they  were  well  embraced,  both  by  the 
Londoners  and  the  Westerlings,  for  whom  I 


CAPTAIN    JOHN    SMITH 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning 


had  promised  to  undertake  it,  thinking  to  have 
joyned  them  all  together.  Betwixt  them  there 
long  was  much  contention.  The  Londoners,  in- 
deed, went  bravely  forward  but  in  three  or 
four  yeares,  I  and  my  friends  consumed  many 
hundred  pounds  among  the  Plimothians,  who 
only  fed  me  but  with  delayes  promises  and 
excuses,  but  no  performance  of  any  kind  to 
any  purpose.  In  the  interim  many  particular 
ships  went  thither,  and  finding  my  relations 
true,  and  that  I  had  not  taken  that  I  brought 
home  from  the  French  men,  as  had  beene  re- 
ported; yet  further  for  my  paines  to  discredit 
me  and  my  calling  it  New  England,  they  ob- 
scured it  and  shadowed  it  with  the  title  of 
Cannada,  till,  at  my  humble  suit,  king  Charles 
confirmed  it,  with  my  map  and  booke,  by  the 
title  of  New  England.  The  gaine  thence  re- 
turning did  make  the  fame  thereof  so  increase, 
that  thirty  forty  or  fifty  saile,  went  yearely 
only  to  trade  and  fish;  but  nothing  would  be 
done  for  a  plantation  till  about  some  hundred 
of  your  Brownists  of  England,  Amsterdam  and 
Leyden,  went  to  New  Plimouth,  whose  humour- 
ous ignorances  caused  them  for  more  than  a 
yeare,  to  endure  a  wonderful  deale  of  misery 
with  an  infinite  patience ;  but  those  in  time  do- 


St.  Botolph's  Town 


ing  well  diverse  others  have  in  small  handfulls 
undertaken  to  goe  there,  to  be  severall  Lords 
and  Kings  of  themselves.  ..." 

The  Gorges  project,  certainly,  aimed  at  noth- 
ing short  of  a  principality  and  was  begun  in  all 
pomp  and  circumstance.  To  Greenwich  on 
June  29,  1623,  came  the  Dukes  of  Buckingham 
and  Eichmond,  four  earls  and  many  lords  and 
gentlemen  to  draw  lots  for  possessions  in  the 
new  country.  This  imposing  group  was  called 
the  Council  for  New  England  and  had  been 
established  under  a  charter  granted  in  1620 
to  the  elder  Gorges  and  thirty-nine  other 
patentees.  Gorges  had  had  the  good  luck  to 
acquaint  Raleigh  with  the  conspiracy  of  the 
Earl  of  Essex  against  Queen  Elizabeth  and 
James  I  had  valid  reason,  therefore,  to  appoint 
him  governor  of  Plymouth  in  Devonshire.  It 
was  while  pursuing  his  duties  in  Plymouth  that 
his  interest  in  New  England  was  excited,  by  the 
mere  accident,  as  he  relates,  of  some  Indians 
happening  to  be  brought  before  him.  At  much 
pains  he  learned  from  them  something  of  the 
nature  of  their  country  and  his  imagination 
was  soon  fired  with  the  vision  of  golden  har- 
vests waiting  in  the  western  continent  to  be 
reaped  by  such  as  he.  Naturally  sanguine  and 
full  of  enthusiasm  he  succeeded  in  interesting 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning  7 

in  his  project  Sir  John  Popham,  Lord  Chief 
Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  through  whose 
acquaintance  with  noblemen  and  connection  at 
Court  the  coveted  patent  for  making  settle- 
ments in  America  was  ere  long  secured. 

Then  the  success  of  the  Greenwich  assembly 

—  King  James  himself  drew  for  Buckingham ! 

—  seems  to  have  decided  both  Sir  Ferdinando 
and  his  son  to  go  at  once  to  their  glittering  new 
world ;  and,  a  few  weeks  later,  the  latter  sailed 
forth,  armed  with  a  commission  as  lieutenant 
of  the  Council  with  power  to  exercise  jurisdic- 
tion, civil,  criminal  and  ecclesiastical,  over  the 
whole  of  the  New  England  coast.  The  plan 
was  for  him  to  settle  not  too  far  from  Ply- 
mouth, absorb  as  soon  as  might  be  the  little 
group  of  men  and  women  who  were  really  lay- 
ing there  the  foundations  of  a  nation  and  be- 
gin in  masterful  fashion  the  administration  of 
the  vast  province  which  was  undeniably  his  — 
on  paper. 

At  Weymouth  Thomas  Weston  had  left  a 
rude  block-house  and  this  Robert  Gorges  and 
his  comrades  immediately  appropriated.  In 
their  company  were  several  mechanics  and 
tillers  of  the  soil  who  proceeded  to  make  them- 
selves useful  in  the  new  land;  but  of  most  in- 
terest to  us  because  of  their  after-history,  were 


8  St.  Botolph's  Town 

three  gentlemen  colonists,  Samuel  Maverick,  a 
young  man  of  means  and  education  who  es- 
tablished at  what  is  now  Chelsea  the  first  per- 
manent house  in  the  Bay  colony,  Rev.  William 
Morrell,  the  Church  of  England  representative 
in  the  brave  undertaking  and  William  Black- 
stone,  graduate  of  Cambridge  University  and 
destined  to  renown  as  the  first  white  settler  of 
what  we  to-day  know  as  Boston. 

It  was  in  September,  1623,  that  Robert 
Gorges  landed  in  Weymouth.  In  the  spring  of 
1624  he  returned  to  England  taking  with  him 
several  of  his  comrades.  Governor  Bradford, 
whom  he  tried  in  vain  to  bully  into  obeisance 
observes  mildly  that  Gorges  did  not  find  "  the 
state  of  things  heare  to  answer  his  Qualitie 
and  condition."  So  he  stayed  less  than  a  year. 
Some  of  those  who  had  come  with  him  were 
for  trying  the  thing  longer,  however.  Even  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Morrell  put  in  a  second  bitter  winter 
before  giving  up  the  attempt.  Though  he 
speaks  feelingly  of  the  hard  lot  of  men  who  are 
"  landed  upon  an  unknown  shore,  peradven- 
ture  weake  in  number  and  naturall  powers,  for 
want  of  boats  and  carriages,"  and  being  for 
this  reason  compelled  with  a  whole  empty  con- 
tinent before  them  "  to  stay  where  they  are 
first  landed,  having  no  means  to  remove  them- 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning 


selves  or  their  goods,  be  the  place  never  so 
fruitlesse  or  inconvenient  for  planting,  build- 
ing houses,  boats  or  stages,  or  the  harbors 
never  so  unfit  for  fishing,  fowling  or  mooring 
their  boats,"  —  yet  Morrell  was  none  the  less 
very  favourably  impressed,  as  Smith  and  all 
the  others  had  been,  with  the  natural  charms 
of  New  England.  As  the  fruit  of  his  sojourn 
we  have  a  Latin  poem  in  which  the  country  is 
described  in  a  genial  and  somewhat  imaginative 
way. 

The  year  that  Morrell  returned  to  England 
(1625)  was  in  all  probability  that  in  which 
William  Blackstone  took  up  his  abode  across 
the  bay,  in  Shawmut,  opposite  the  mouth  of 
the  Charles.  And  it  was  in  that  same  year, 
too,  that  Captain  Wollaston  and  his  party  es- 
tablished themselves  at  the  place  since  known 
as  Mount  Wollaston,  in  the  town  of  Quincy. 

Among  Wollaston 's  companions  was  one 
Thomas  Morton  "  of  Clifford's  Inn,  Gent.,"  a 
lawyer  by  profession  and  an  outlaw  by  practice. 
In  the  rather  dull  pages  of  early  New  England 
history  Morton's  escapades  supply  "  colour," 
however,  for  which  we  cannot  be  too  grateful 
to  him.  The  staid  Plymouth  people  soon  came 
to  speak  of  him  as  the  "  Lord  of  Misrule  "  and 
there  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  he  failed 


10  St.  Botolph's  Town 

to  deserve  the  title.  When  Wollaston  departed 
to  Virginia  on  business  he  proceeded  to  become 
captain  in  his  stead  and,  naming  the  settlement 
Mare  Mount,  —  Merry  Mount,  —  he  invited  all 
the  settlers  to  have  a  good  time.  They  did  so, 
according  to  Morton's  own  account  —  in  the 
mad  glad  bad  way  ever  dear  to  roystering  Eng- 
lishmen. Not  only  did  he  and  his  followers 
drink  deep  of  the  festal  bowl  but  they  made  the 
Indians  with  whom  they  traded  welcome  to 
drink  deep  also.  To  the  men  savages  were 
given  arms  and  ammunition  while  to  the  women 
was  extended  the  privilege  of  becoming  the 
mates  of  the  conquering  English.  The  May 
Day  of  1627  was  celebrated  in  revelry  run  riot. 
Morton  has  left  us  a  minute  description  of  the 
pole  used  on  this  occasion  "  a  goodly  pine  tree 
of  80  foote  long  .  .  .  with  a  peare  of  bucks 
horns  nayled  one,  somewhat  neare  unto  the 
top  of  it,"  while  Governor  Bradford  says 
they  "  set  up  a  May-pole,  drinking  and  dan- 
cing aboute  it  many  days  togither,  inviting  the 
Indean  women  for  their  consorts,  dancing  and 
frisking  togither  (like  so  many  fairies,  or 
furies  rather)  and  worse  practices." 

Bradford  not  unnaturally  failed  to  appre- 
ciate the  "  colour."  Moreover,  the  settlers 
could  not,  of  course,  have  the  natives  furnished 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning  11 

with  firearms.  So  Morton  was,  after  some 
difficulty,  made  a  prisoner  and  shipped  off  to 
England.  But  he  came  back  again  the  next 
year  and  for  a  considerable  time  was  a  veri- 
table thorn  in  the  flesh  to  Endicott  and  his  com- 
panions at  Salem. 

The  Salem  settlement  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
rescuing  party.  For  while  Sir  Ferdinando  and 
his  friends  had  been  exhausting  themselves 
upon  the  pomps  and  ceremonies  of  colonization 
John  White,  a  Dorchester  clergyman,  had  es- 
tablished a  little  group  of  "  prudent  and  hon- 
est men  "  in  a  kind  of  missionary  settlement 
near  what  is  now  Gloucester.  Of  these  men 
Roger  Conant  with  three  others  had  stayed  on 
in  the  face  of  much  discouragement  after  their 
companions  returned  to  England,  finally  re- 
moving to  Naumkeag  (Salem),  —  where  Endi- 
cott found  them  when  he  landed  early  in  the 
fall  of  1628. 

The  rights  of  Endicott 's  men  to  territory  in 
New  England  were  obtained  by  purchase  from 
Sir  Ferdinando 's  Council  of  Plymouth.  The 
name  adopted  by  them  was  that  of  "  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company."  Very  wisely,  however,  as 
matters  turned  out,  Endicott  and  his  friends 
insisted  that  a  charter  be  obtained  from  the 
Crown    confirmatory   of   the    grant   from    the 


12  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Council  of  Plymouth.  And  though  they  sailed 
before  the  charter  passed  the  seals,  when  it  did 
so,  March  4,  1629,  the  rights  of  the  colonists 
were  denned  as  they  never  before  had  been,  — 
and  Charles  I  had  placed  in  the  hands  of  mere 
subjects  powers  which  many  a  king  who  came 
after  him  would  have  given  much  to  revoke. 

Though  Endicott  was  the  "  Governor  of 
London's  Plantation  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
of  New  England  "  Matthew  Cradock  was  the 
governor,  —  i.  e.  the  executive  business  head,  — 
in  the  old  country ;  and  Cradock  it  was  who,  in 
July,  1629,  submitted  to  his  fellow-members  in 
England  certain  propositions,  conceived  by 
himself,  which,  reinforced  as  they  were  by  the 
charter,  were  destined  to  work  a  veritable 
revolution  in  the  colonization  of  New  England. 
Up  to  this  time  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
thought  whatever  of  transferring  to  the  new 
land  the  actual  government  of  the  Company 
but  Cradock  made  the  startling  proposal  that 
just  this  should  be  done  to  the  end  that  persons 
of  worth  and  quality  might  deem  it  worth  while 
to  embark  with  their  families  for  the  planta- 
tion. There  is  still  standing  in  Medford,  near 
Boston,  a  house  bearing  the  name  of  this  gov- 
ernor and  built  for  his  use  though  he  never 
came  to   occupy  it.     Between  the   suggestion 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning  13 

of  Cradock's  plan  at  Deputy  Goffe's  house  in 
London,  in  August,  1629,  and  its  adoption  a 
month  later  every  member  of  the  Company 
gave  deep  thought  to  the  change  involved. 
And,  gradually,  they  came  to  see  in  it  a  way 
of  escape  from  persecution  and  oppression. 
Reforms  in  England,  whether  of  Church  or 
State,  seemed  impossible.  Strafford  was  at 
the  head  of  the  army  and  Laud  in  control  of 
the  Church.  Illegal  taxes  were  being  levied  on 
all  hands  and  it  looked  as  if  Charles  were  re- 
solved to  rule  the  kingdom  in  his  own  stiff- 
necked  way,  disdaining  the  cooperation  of  any 
Parliament.  Little  hope  indeed  did  the  Old 
World  offer  to  the  liberty-loving,  religious  men 
who  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  Puritan  party! 

The  document  by  which  these  men  finally 
emancipated  themselves  has  come  down  to  us 
as  the  Cambridge  Agreement,  so  called  because 
it  was  signed  beneath  the  shadows  and  prob- 
ably within  the  very  walls  of  that  venerable 
university  whose  traditions  it  was  destined  to 
transplant  into  a  new  world.  It  bore  the  date, 
August  26,  1629;  and  was  in  the  following 
words : — 

"  Upon  due  consideration  of  the  state  of  the 
Plantation  now  in  hand  for  New  England, 
wherein   we   whose   names   are  hereunto   sub- 


14  St.  Botolph's  Town 

scribed,  have  engaged  ourselves,  and  having 
weighed  the  work  in  regard  of  the  consequence, 
God's  glory  and  the  Church's  good;  as  also  in 
regard  of  the  difficulties  and  discouragements 
which  in  all  probabilities  must  be  forecast  upon 
the  prosecution  of  this  business;  considering 
withal  that  this  whole  adventure  grows  upon 
the  joint  confidence  we  have  in  each  other's 
fidelity  and  resolution  herein,  so  as  no  man 
of  us  would  have  adventured  it  without  the 
assurance  of  the  rest;  now  for  the  better  en- 
couragement of  ourselves  and  others  who  shall 
join  with  us  in  this  action,  and  to  the  end  that 
every  man  may  without  scruple  dispose  of  his 
estate  and  affairs  as  may  best  fit  his  prepara- 
tion for  this  voyage;  it  is  fully  and  faithfully 
agreed  among  us,  and  every  one  of  us  doth 
hereby  freely  and  sincerely  promise  and  bind 
himself,  in  the  word  of  a  Christian  and  in  the 
presence  of  God,  who  is  the  searcher  of  all 
hearts,  that  we  will  so  really  endeavor  the 
prosecution  of  this  work,  as  by  God's  assist- 
ance we  will  be  ready  in  our  persons,  and  with 
such  of  our  several  families  as  are  to  go  with 
us,  and  such  provision  as  we  are  able  conve- 
niently to  furnish  ourselves  withal,  to  embark 
for  the  said  Plantation  by  the  first  of  March 
next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of  this  land  as  shall 


As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning  15 

be  agreed  upon  by  the  Company,  to  the  end  to 
pass  the  Seas  (under  God's  protection)  to  in- 
habit and  continue  in  New  England:  Provided 
always,  that  before  the  last  of  September  next, 
the  whole  Government,  together  with  the 
Patent  for  the  said  Plantation,  be  first,  by  an 
order  of  Court,  legally  transferred  and  estab- 
lished to  remain  with  us  and  others  which  shall 
inhabit  upon  the  said  Plantation ;  and  provided 
also,  that  if  any  shall  be  hindered  by  such  just 
or  inevitable  let  or  other  cause,  to  be  allowed 
by  three  parts  of  four  of  these  whose  names 
are  hereunto  subscribed,  then  such  persons  for 
such  times  and  during  such  lets,  to  be  dis- 
charged of  this  bond.  And  we  do  further 
promise,  every  one  for  himself,  that  shall  fail 
to  be  ready  by  his  own  default  by  the  day  ap- 
pointed, to  pay  for  every  day's  default  the  sum 
of  £3  to  the  use  of  the  rest  of  the  company  who 
shall  be  ready  by  the  same  day  and  time. 

(Signed) 

Richard  Saltonstall,  Thomas  Sharpe, 

Thomas  Dudley,  Increase  Nowell, 

William  Vassall,  John  Winthrop, 

Nicholas  West,  William  Pinchon, 

Isaac  Johnson,  Kellam  Browne, 

John  Humfry,  William  Colbron." 


16  St.  Botolph's  Town 

As  important  to  this  epoch-making  agree- 
ment as  the  Prince  of  Denmark  to  the  play  of 
Hamlet  is  the  sentence  "  Provided  always,  that 
before  the  last  of  September  next,  the  whole 
Government,  together  with  the  Patent  for  the 
said  Plantation,  be  first  by  an  order  of  Court, 
legally  transferred  and  established  to  remain 
with  us  and  others  which  shall  inhabit  upon  the 
said  Plantation."  This  was  the  great  condi- 
tion, we  must  bear  clearly  in  mind,  upon  which 
Saltonstall,  Dudley,  Winthrop  and  the  rest 
agreed  to  leave  the  land  where  they  had  been 
born  and  bred,  and  ' '  inhabit  and  continue  ' '  in 
a  new  land  of  which  they  knew  nothing.  Two 
months  later  John  Winthrop  was  chosen  head 
of  the  enterprise,  with  the  style  and  title  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company. 
Emphatically,  Boston  has  now  "  begun." 


II 

JOHN    WINTHROP   AND    MARGARET,    HIS   WIFE 

From  every  point  of  view  that  was  a  remark- 
able group  of  men  who  boldly  declared  at  Cam- 
bridge their  resolution  to  found  a  state  in  the 
new  world.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  was  de- 
scended from  a  former  lord  mayor  of  London 
and  occupied  a  place  of  no  little  importance 
in  the  England  of  his  time;  the  ancestors  of 
Thomas  Dudley  had  all  been  men  honoured  in 
English  history;  John  Nowell  was  related  to 
the  dean  of  St.  Paul's  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth; 
John  Humfrey  married  a  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln ;  William  Vassall  was  endowed 
with  a  positive  genius  for  trade;  William 
Pynchon  possessed  unusual  learning  and  piety; 
Isaac  Johnson  was  a  man  of  very  large  wealth 
and  another  son-in-law  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
and  Thomas  Sharpe,  Michael  West,  Killam 
Browne  and  William  Colbron  were  all  English 
country  gentlemen  of  no  inconsiderable  fortune 
and  of  university  breeding.     But  the  greatest 

17 


18  St.  Botolph's  Town 


man  of  the  group  was,  of  course,  John  Win- 
throp,  who  had  been  chosen  to  be  its  head.  And 
his  peer  in  every  womanly  respect  was  Mar- 
garet, his  noble  wife. 

As  a  lad  Winthrop  had  received  a  good  edu- 
cation and  had  been  admitted  in  1602  into 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  An  early  love- 
match  prevented  him  from  staying  to  take  his 
degree,  however,  and  when  only  a  youth  of 
eighteen,  we  find  him  living  at  Great  Stam- 
bridge  in  the  County  of  Essex  with  his  first 
wife's  family,  —  very  wealthy  people  for  that 
day  and  of  high  standing  in  the  community. 
Six  children  were  born  to  the  happy  young 
pair  and  then,  when  the  husband  and  father 
was  only  twenty-five,  he  was  left  a  widower. 
"Within  a  year  he  was  married  again,  according 
to  the  customs  of  that  period.  Then,  in  another 
year,  this  wife  and  her  infant  child  were  also 
committed  to  the  grave.  Up  to  this  time  Win- 
throp 's  profession  had  been  that  of  a  lawyer 
but  these  successive  and  severe  bereavements 
made  him  full  of  misgivings  as  to  his  religious 
condition  and  he  seriously  contemplated  the 
abandonment  of  the  law  with  a  view  to  taking 
orders  as  a  clergyman.  His  introspection  at 
this  stage  of  his  development  is  recorded  in  a 
manuscript  of  "  Religious  Experiences  "  which 


John  Winthrop 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  19 

covers  a  period  of  three  years  and  makes  in- 
tensely interesting  reading. 

To  understand  these  "  Religious  Experi- 
ences ' '  and  the  subsequent  life  of  the  man  who 
wrote  them  it  is  necessary  to  appreciate  the 
fact  that  Winthrop  came  of  intensely  religious 
parentage.  Adam  ."Winthrop,  his  father,  was  a 
man  of  deep  personal  piety  and  Anne  Win- 
throp, his  mother,  could  not  live  happily  away 
from  the  daily  inspiration  of  her  Bible,  as  we 
see  from  a  letter  sent  to  her  husband  before 
their  son  was  born.  The  mingling  of  love  for 
God  with  ardent  human  affection  which  we 
shall  find  to  be  a  constant  trait  in  the  letters 
of  her  son  is  present  here  also:  "  I  have  re- 
seyved,  Right  deare  and  well-beloved,"  she 
writes  her  absent  husband,  "  from  you  this 
week  a  letter,  though  short,  yet  very  sweete, 
which  gave  me  a  lively  tast  of  those  sweete  & 
comfortable  wordes,  whiche  alwayes  when  you 
be  present  with  me,  are  wont  to  flowe  most 
aboundantlye  from  your  loving  hart  —  where- 
bye  I  perseyve  that  whether  you  be  present 
with  me  or  absent  from  me,  you  are  ever  one 
towardes  me,  &  your  hart  remayneth  allwayes 
with  me.  Wherefore  layinge  up  this  perswai- 
sion  of  you  in  my  brest,  I  will  most  assuredlye, 
the  Lord  assistynge  me  by  his  grace,  beare  al- 


20  St.  Botolph's  Town 

waves  the  lyke  loving  hart  unto  yon  agayne, 
nntyll  suche  tyme  as  I  may  more  fully  enjoye 
your  loving  presence :  but  in  the  meane  tyme 
I  will  remayne  as  one  having  a  great  inherit- 
aunce,  or  riche  treasure,  and  it  beinge  by  force 
kept  from  him,  or  hee  beinge  in  a  strange  Con- 
trey,  and  cannot  enjoye  it;  longethe  contyn- 
ually  after  it,  sighinge  and  sorrowinge  that  hee 
is  so  long  berefte  of  it,  yet  rejoyseth  that  hee 
hathe  so  greatt  tresure  pertayninge  to  him,  and 
hopeth  that  one  day  the  tyme  will  come  that 
hee  shall  enjoye  it,  and  have  the  wholle  benyfytt 
of  it.  So  I  having  a  good  hoope  of  the  tyme  to 
com,  doe  more  paciently  beare  the  time  present, 
and  I  praye  send  me  word  if  you  be  in  helthe 
and  what  sucesse  you  have  with  your  letters. 
...  I  send  you  this  weke  by  my  fathers 
man  a  shyrte  and  fyve  payer  of  hoses.  .  .  . 
I  pray  send  me  a  pound  of  starch  by  my  fathers 
man.  You  may  very  well  send  my  byble  if  it 
be  redye  —  thus  with  my  verye  hartye  com- 
mendacions  I  byd  you  farewell  comittinge  you 
to  almighty e  God  to  whom  I  commend  you  in 
my  dayle  prayers  as  I  am  sure  you  doe  me,  the 
Lord  kep  us  now  &  ever  Amen 

"  Your  loving  wife 

11  Anne  Winthrop  " 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  21 


From  his  mother,  then,  Winthrop  inherited 
a  nature  of  quite  unusual  affectionateness  for 
a  man  of  his  time  and  from  his  father  an  en- 
during tendency  toward  introspection  and  stern 
self-discipline.  His  Diary,  as  frank  and  often 
as  pathetic  as  Amiel's,  constantly  displays  the 
warring  of  a  passionate  tendency  with  a  conse- 
crated other-worldliness.  "  The  Love  of  this 
present  world!  "  he  exclaims  in  the  course  of 
an  exquisite  love-letter  to  the  wife  from  whom 
his  work  has  parted  him,  "  how  it  bewitches  us 
&  steales  away  our  hearts  from  him  who  is  the 
onely  life  &  felicitye.  O  that  we  could  delight 
in  Christ  our  Lord  &  heavenly  husband  as  we 
doe  in  each  other,  &  that  his  absence  were  like 
greivous  to  us!  "  Winthrop  could  leave  home 
and  friends,  yes,  even  his  adored  Margaret,  — 
to  come  to  a  foreign  land.  But  it  would  not  be 
easy  for  him.  The  step  would  be  taken  in  that 
same  frame  of  mind  which  his  Diary  of  Jan.  1, 
1611,  reflects  when  it  says:  "  Beinge  admon- 
ished by  a  christian  freinde  that  some  good 
men  were  ofended  to  heare  of  some  gaminge 
which  was  used  in  my  house  by  my  servants  I 
resolved  that  as  for  my  selfe  not  to  use  any 
cardings  etc,  so  for  others  to  represse  it  as 
much  as  I  could,  during  the  continuance  of  my 
present  state,  &  if  God  bringe  me  once  more 


22  St.  Botolph's  Town 

to  be  whollye  by  my  selfe,  then  to  banishe  all 
togither."  This  resolution  is  particularly  in- 
teresting when  placed  alongside  of  the  first 
New  England  temperance  pledge  later  fathered 
by  Governor  Winthrop.1 

When  in  the  heydey  of  his  youthful  vigour 
(he  was  then  only  twenty-five!)  Winthrop 
wrote,  "  Finding  that  the  variety  of  meates 
drawes  me  on  to  eate  more  than  standeth  with 
my  healthe,  I  have  resolved  not  to  eate  of  more 
then  2  dishes  at  any  one  meale,  whither  fish, 
flesh,  fowle  or  fruite  or  whittemeats  etc: 
whither  at  home  or  abroade;  the  lorde  give 
me  care  &  abilitie  to  performe  it."  A  year  later 
when,  by  the  death  of  his  second  wife's  father, 
he  had  come  into  considerable  wealth  and 
therefore  felt  again  keen  temptation  to  self- 
indulgence  he  makes  twelve  resolutions,  so  in- 
teresting in  the  light  of  his  after  life  that  I 
give  them  here  in  full: 

"  1.  I  doe  resolve  to  give  myself e,  my  life, 
my  witt,  my  healthe,  my  wealthe  to  the  service 
of  my  God  and  &  Savior,  who  by  givinge  him- 
selfe  for  me  &  to  me,  deserves  whatsoever  I 
am  or  can  be,  to  be  at  his  Comandement  &  for 
his  glorye: 

1 '  2.     I  will  live  where  he  appoints  me. 

1  See  p.  9  "  Old  New  England  Inns." 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  23 

"3.  I  will  faithfully  endeavour  to  discharge 
that  callinge  wch  he  shall  appoint  me  unto. 

"4.  I  will  carefully  avoide  vaine  &  need- 
less expences  that  I  may  be  the  more  liberall 
to  good  uses. 

"  5.  My  property,  &  bounty  must  goe  forth e 
abroade,  yet  I  must  ever  be  careful  that  it  be- 
ginne  at  home. 

"6.  I  will  so  dispose  of  my  family  affaires 
as  my  morning  prayers  &  evening  exercises  be 
not  omitted. 

"7.  I  will  have  a  speciall  care  of  the  good 
education  of  my  children. 

"8.  I  will  banish  profanes  from  my 
familye. 

"9.  I  will  diligently  observe  the  Lords 
Sabaoth  bothe  for  the  avoidinge  &  preventinge 
worldly  business,  &  also  for  the  religious  spend- 
inge  of  such  tymes  as  are  free  from  publique 
exercises,  viz.  the  morninge,  noone,  &  evening. 

"10.  I  will  endeavour  to  have  the  morninge 
free  for  private  prayer,  meditation  &  reading. 

"11.  I  will  flee  Idlenes,  &  much  worldly 
busines. 

"12.  I  will  often  praye  &  conferre  privately 
wth  my  wife." 

Just  here  seems  as  good  a  place  as  any  to 
observe  that  Winthrop  was  wonderfully  fortu- 


24  St.  Botolph's  Town 


nate  in  each  of  the  three  women  whom  he  suc- 
cessively called  "  my  wife."  The  bride  of  his 
youth,  the  wife  of  his  young  manhood,  - —  with 
whom  he  lived  only  one  short  year,  —  and  Mar- 
garet, who  was  his  faithful  spouse  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  were  all  women 
who  could  respond  richly  to  the  aspirations  of 
his  soul  as  well  as  to  the  cravings  of  his  heart. 
Margaret,  of  course,  was  peculiarly  his  mate. 
The  daughter  of  Sir  John  Tyndal,  knight,  she 
it  was  who  made  him  what  he  now  became. 
"  From  the  day  that  his  faith  was  plighted 
to  her  "  as  one  sympathetic  historian  has  said 
.  .  .  "  he  learned  to  step  boldly  out  among 
his  equals,  to  take  his  share  in  the  world's 
work. ' ' 

After  his  marriage  and  up  to  the  time  when 
he  engaged  upon  the  New  England  enterprise 
Winthrop's  business  was  that  of  an  attorney 
practising  in  London  and  on  the  circuit.  This, 
naturally,  took  him  much  away  from  Groton 
where  Margaret  and  his  young  children  lived 
and  as  a  result  we  find  in  the  correspondence 
which  passed  between  Groton  Manor  and  the 
"  Chamber  at  the  Temple  Gate  "  an  almost 
complete  record  of  the  temporal,  spiritual  and 
affectional  development  of  this  remarkable 
pair.     Tender  love-letters,  every  one  of  these 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  25 

epistles!  "  I  wish  thy  imployments  coulde 
suffer  thee  to  come  home,"  writes  the  wife,  to 
which  her  husband  responds  promptly,  "  such 
is  my  love  to  thee  my  deare  spouse,  as  were  it 
not  that  my  imployment  did  enforce  me  to  it, 
I  could  not  live  comfortably  from  thee  halfe 
thus  long.  ...  so  I  kiss  my  sweet  wife  & 
rest  alwayes  Thy  faithfull  husband 

"  John  Winthrop  " 

For  a  dozen  years  of  this  correspondence 
there  is,  however,  no  thought  that  Winthrop 's 
"  imployment  "  would  ever  be  such  as  to  put 
the  ocean  between  them.  He  was  not  a  mem- 
ber of  the  original  Massachusetts  Company; 
one  may  search  in  vain  for  his  name  along 
with  those  of  Cradock,  Saltonstall  and  Endicott 
on  the  Massachusetts  Charter  of  March,  1629. 
But  the  early  summer  of  that  year  found  him 
thinking  very  seriously  of  emigration  as  one 
sees  between  the  lines  of  a  letter  to  Margaret 
dated  June  22, 1629.  "  My  comfort  is  that  thou 
art  willinge  to  be  my  companion  in  what  place 
or  condition  soever,  in  weale  or  in  woe.  Be  it 
what  it  may,  if  God  be  with  us  we  need  not 
feare;  his  favour,  &  the  kingdome  of  heaven 
wilbe  alike  &  happiness  enough  to  us  &  ours 
in  all  places."     Evidently  the  writer  of  this 


26  St.  Botolph's  Town 

felt  a  crisis  to  be  at  hand  both  in  the  affairs 
of  his  country  and  in  his  own  personal  life. 
But  it  was  not  in  John  Winthrop's  nature  to 
lightly  decide  upon  any  serious  step.  From  his 
paper  "  General  Considerations  for  the  Planta- 
tions of  New  England  "  it  is  plain  that  he 
thought  carefully  and  prayerfully  upon  every 
phase  of  the  enterprise. 

Then  finally  it  became  to  him  clear  that  he 
had  fallen  upon  disastrous  times;  that  foun- 
tains of  learning  in  his  own  country  were  cor- 
rupted; that  all  arts  and  trades  were  carried 
on  in  such  deceitful  and  unrighteous  ways  that 
it  was  well-nigh  impossible  for  a  good  man  to 
live  by  any  of  them;  that  the  land  was  weary 
of  her  inhabitants ;  that  man  had  become  of  less 
importance  than  beasts,  children,  —  who  ought 
to  have  been  considered  blessings,  —  being 
counted  the  greatest  burdens ;  that  the  kingdom 
of  anti-christ  was  increasing;  that,  in  a  word, 
the  Lord  had  begun  to  frown  upon  England 
and  cut  its  inhabitants  short.  To  John  Win- 
throp,  therefore,  New  England  seemed  a  place 
provided  by  God  "to  be  a  refuge  for  many 
whome  he  meanes  to  save  out  of  the  generall 
callamity. ' ' 

His  friends,  of  course,  were  not  nearly  so 
sure  as  he  was  that  the  new  country  was  beck- 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  27 

oning  him  and  Robert  Ryece,  whose  advice  he 
asked  in  the  matter,  replied  in  a  letter  which  is 
full  of  interest  because  it  marshals  all  the  pru- 
dent considerations  which  should  have  per- 
suaded Winthrop  to  stay  just  where  he  was 
and  let  other  people  be  pioneers  in  this  difficult 
and  dangerous  enterprise.  "  The  Church  & 
Common  welthe  heere  at  home,"  he  begins, 
"  ha  the  more  neede  of  your  beste  abyllytie  in 
these  dangerous  tymes  then  any  remote  planta- 
tion, which  may  be  performed  by  persons  of 
leser  woorthe  &  apprehension.  .  .  .  Agyne, 
your  owne  estate  wylbe  more  secured  in  the 
myddest  of  all  accidents  heere  at  home,  than  in 
this  forreine  expedition,  which  discovereth  a 
1000  shipwrackes  which  may  betyde.  All  your 
kynsfolkes  &  moste  understandinge  friendes 
wyll  more  rejoyce  at  your  stayenge  at  home 
with  any  condition  which  God  shall  sende,  then 
to  throwe  your  selfe  upon  vayne  hopes,  with 
many  difficulties  &  uncertaynties.  Agayne,  you 
shalbe  more  acceptable  in  the  service  of  the 
Hieste,  &  more  under  His  protection  whiles  you 
walke  charely  in  your  vocation  heere  at  home, 
then  to  goe  owte  of  your  vocation,  comyttinge 
your  selfe  to  a  woorlde  of  dangers  abroade. 

"  The  pype  goeth  sweete,  tyll  the  byrde  be 
in  the  nett ;  many  bewtifull  hopes  ar  sett  before 


28  St.  Botolph's  Town 

your  eyes  to  allewer  you  to  danger.  Planta- 
tions ar  for  yonge  men,  that  can  enduer  all 
paynes  &  hunger.  Yf  in  your  yewthe  you  had 
byn  acquaynted  with  navigation,  you  mighte 
have  promised  your  selfe  more  hope  in  this 
longe  vyadge,  but  for  one  of  your  yeeres  [Win- 
throp  was  now  forty-two]  to  undertake  so  large 
a  taske  is  seldome  seene  but  to  miscarry.  To 
adventure  your  wholle  famylly  upon  so  mani- 
feste  uncerteynties  standeth  not  with  your  wys- 
dome  &  longe  experience.  Lett  yonger  yeeres 
take  this  charge  upon  them,  with  the  advyse 
of  that  which  elder  yeeres  shall  directe  them 
unto,  the  losse  slialbe  the  lesse  yf  thay  mys- 
carry ;  but  there  honor  shalbe  the  more  if  thay 
prosper.  So  long  as  you  sytt  at  the  helme, 
your  famylie  prospereth,  but  yf  you  shoold 
happen  to  fayle,  your  flocke  woolde  be  at  the 
least  in  hazarde,  if  not  totally  to  myscarrye. 
Yonge  men  directions  thowghe  sometymes  with 
some  successe,  do  not  all  waves  succeede. 
These  remote  partes  will  not  well  agree  with 
your  yeeres ;  whiles  you  are  heere  you  wyll  be 
ever  fytter  by  your  understandings  &  wisdome 
to  supply  there  necessities.  But  if  it  shoolde 
happen  that  you  shoolde  gett  safely  thither, 
you  shall  soone  fynde,  how  necessitie  wyll  calle 
for  supplies  from  these  parts.    I  pray  you  par- 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  29 

don  my  boldnes,  that  had  rather  erre  in  what 
I  thinke,  then  be  sylente  in  what  I  shoolde 
speake.  How  harde  wyll  it  bee  for  one 
browghte  up  among  boockes  &  Learned  men, 
to  lyve  in  a  barbarous  place,  where  is  no 
learnynge  &  lesse  cyvillytie.   ..." 

This  counsel  of  prudent  cowardice  was  writ- 
ten just  a  fortnight  before  the  memorable  com- 
pact at  Cambridge.  But  it  did  not  deter  Win- 
throp from  signing  that  brave  Agreement. 
For,  in  the  meantime  his  son,  —  that  John  Win- 
throp who  was  afterwards  renowned  as  Gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut,  —  returned  from  a  pro- 
tracted journey  in  foreign  lands  and  heartened 
him  with  these  words:  "  For  the  business  of 
New  England,  I  can  say  no  other  thing,  but  that 
I  believe  confidently,  that  the  whole  disposition 
thereof  is  of  the  Lord.  .  .  .  And  for  my- 
self, I  have  seen  go  much  of  the  vanity  of  the 
world,  that  I  esteem  no  more  of  the  diversities 
of  countries,  than  as  so  many  inns,  whereof  the 
traveller  that  hath  lodged  in  the  best  or  in  the 
worst,  findeth  no  difference,  when  he  cometh  to 
his  journey's  end;  and  I  shall  call  that  my 
country,  where  I  may  most  glorify  God,  and 
enjoy  the  presence  of  my  dearest  friends. 
Therefore,  herein  I  submit  myself  to  God's 
will  and  yours,  and  with  your  leave,  do  dedicate 


30  St.  Botolph's  Town 

myself  ...  to  the  service  of  God  and  the 
Company.   ..." 

Best  of  all  the  gentle  Margaret  did  not  fail 
her  husband  in  this  hour  of  need.  Letters  full 
of  cheer  and  sympathy  found  their  way  to  him 
from  Groton  Manor  and  in  them  all  she  ex- 
pressed conviction  that  the  good  Lord  would 
"  certainly  bless  us  in  our  intended  purpose." 
His  tender  appreciation  of  her  pluck  is  reflected 
in  all  the  letters  he  sent  her  during  the  months 
preceding  his  departure.  "  I  must  now  begin 
to  prepare  thee  for  our  long  parting,  which 
grow  very  near,"  he  writes  early  in  January, 
1629.  "  I  know  not  how  to  deal  with  thee  by 
arguments ;  for  if  thou  wert  as  wise  and  patient 
as  ever  woman  was,  yet  it  must  needs  be  a  great 
trial  to  thee  and  the  greater  because  I  am  so 
dear  to  thee ;  "  and  then  he  goes  on  to  point  out 
that  she  must  find  her  comfort  in  religion,  as 
where  else  could  she  find  it,  poor  thing!  when 
the  husband  with  whose  soul  hers  was  pecul- 
iarly knit  was  for  venturing  to  a  foreign  land, 
leaving  her  behind.  Her  replies  to  his  brave 
attempts  at  consolation  are  indeed  touching, 
and  immensely  pathetic  also  are  his  answers. 
He  has  been  arranging  to  leave  with  friends 
fifteen  hundred  pounds  for  her  support  until 
she  should  be  able  to  follow  him  to  the  New 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  31 

World  and  now  he  writes,  "  My  sweet  wife, 
The  Lord  hath  oft  brought  us  together  with 
comfort,  when  we  have  been  long  absent; 
and  if  it  be  good  for  us  he  will  do  so  still. 
When  I  was  in  Ireland  he  brought  us  together 
again.  When  I  was  sick  here  in  London  he  re- 
stored us  together  again.  How  many  dangers, 
near  death,  hast  thou  been  in  thyself!  and  yet 
the  Lord  hath  granted  me  to  enjoy  thee  still. 
If  he  did  not  watch  over  us  we  need  not  go  over 
sea  to  seek  death  or  misery:  we  should  meet  it 
at  every  step,  in  every  journey.  And  is  not  he 
a  God  abroad  as  well  as  at  home?  Is  not  his 
power  and  providense  the  same  in  New  Eng- 
land as  it  hath  been  in  Old  England?  .  .  . 
My  good  wife,  trust  in  the  Lord,  whom  thou 
hast  found  faithful.  He  will  be  better  to  thee 
than  any  husband  and  will  restore  thee  thy 
husband  with  advantage.  But  I  kiss  my  sweet 
wife  and  bless  thee  and  all  ours  and  rest  Thine 
ever  Jo.  Winthrop 

February  14,  1629  —  Thou  must  be  my  val- 
entine ..." 

The  picture  of  him  whom  we  are  wont  to  call 
"  the  stern  John  Winthrop  "  remembering, 
even  in  the  midst  of  hurried  and  troubled  pre- 
parations to  embark  for  the  New  World 
woman's  perennial  sentiment  concerning  such 


32  St.  Botolph's  Town 


festivals  as  St.  Valentine's  Day  is  so  striking 
as  to  be  worth  bearing  in  mind.  And  when  we 
have  placed  alongside  of  it  the  series  of  fare- 
well letters  sent  to  his  wife  from  Cowes  and 
the  Isle  of  Wight  where  the  ships  were  detained 
by  bad  weather,  we  have  a  complete  compre- 
hension of  one  side  of  the  man's  character. 
"  Mondays  and  Fridays,  at  five  of  the  clock 
at  night,  we  shall  meet  in  spirit  till  we  meet  in 
person,"  he  promises  her.  Shakespeare,  not 
long  before,  had  put  the  same  thought  into  the 
mouth  of  Imogen,  when,  on  having  parted  with 
Posthumus,  she  complains  that  they  had  been 
torn  apart 

"  Ere  I  could  tell  him, 
How  would  I  think  on  him,  at  certain  hours, 
Such  thoughts,  and  such ; 

...  or  have  charged  him, 
At  the  sixth  hour  of  morn,  at  noon,  at  midnight, 
To  encounter  me  with  orisons ;  for  then 
I  am  in  heaven  for  him." 

But  Posthumus,  as  Kobert  C.  Winthrop,  the 
editor  of  his  progenitor's  remarkable  letters, 
points  out,  was  not  in  his  forty-third  year,  as 
was  the  Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony;  nor  Imogen  in  her  thirty-ninth.  More- 
over, one  can  scarcely  fancy  either  of  Shake- 
speare's lovers  admitting,  as  Winthrop  does  in 


John  Winthrop  and  His  Wife  33 

one  of  the  first  New  England  letters  which  he 
sent  his  wife,  "  I  own  with  sorrow  that  much 
business  hath  made  me  too  often  forget  Mon- 
days and  Fridays." 


in 

ST.  BOTOLPH'S  TOWN  IN  OLD  ENGLAND  AND  NEW 

Nowadays  embarking  from  old  England  for 
the  new  seems  no  great  matter.  But  in  that 
spring  of  1630  when  Winthrop's  little  fleet 
sailed  from  Cowes  travelling  was  quite  a  dif- 
ferent proposition.  For  it  was  certain  that  the 
voyage  would  be  very  long  and  usually  it  was 
dangerous  also.  On  this  particular  occasion  it 
took  seventy-six  days  and  was  attended  by  all 
those  "  perils  of  the  deep  "  against  which 
some  of  us  still  have  the  good  sense  to  pray. 
Winthrop's  vessel  was  called  the  Arbella  in 
compliment  to  Lady  Arbella  Johnson,  who  was 
one  of  its  passengers,  and  among  the  other 
ships  which  brought  over  this  Company  of 
some  eight  hundred  souls  was  the  Mayflower, 
consecrated  in  every  New  England  heart  as  the 
carrier,  a  decade  earlier,  of  the  Pilgrims  of 
Plymouth.  During  the  voyage  Governor  Win- 
throp  wrote  the  simple  beginnings  of  what  is 
known  as  his  "  History  of  New  England,"  a 

34 


In  Old  England  and  New  35 

journal  from  which  we  glean  the  most  that  we 
know  of  the  early  days  of  the  colonists. 

Being  rather  impatient,  however,  just  as  its 
compiler  probably  was,  actually  to  land  in  the 
New  World  we  will  quote  here  only  that  para- 
graph which  describes  the  end  of  the  voyage: 
"  Saturday  12.  About  four  in  the  morning  we 
were  near  our  port.  We  shot  off  two  pieces  of 
ordnance  and  sent  our  skiff  to  Mr.  Peirce 
his  ship.  .  .  .  Afterwards  Mr.  Peirce  came 
aboard  us,  and  returned  to  fetch  Mr.  Endecott, 
who  came  to  us  about  two  of  the  clock  and  with 
him  Mr.  Skelton  and  Captain  Levett.  We  that 
were  of  the  assistants  and  some  other  gentle- 
men and  some  of  the  women  and  our  captain 
returned  with  them  to  Nahumkeck,  where  we 
supped  with  a  good  venison  pasty  and  good 
beer,  and  at  night  we  returned  to  our  ship  but 
some  of  the  women  stayed  behind.  In  the  mean 
time  most  of  our  people  went  on  shore  upon 
the  land  of  Cape  Ann,  which  lay  very  near  us 
and  gathered  store  of  fine  strawberries." 

The  initial  landing,  this  makes  clear,  was  not 
at  Boston  at  all  but  at  Salem  where  Endicott's 
band  had  already  settled.  Things  were  not 
very  rosy  in  this  colony  just  then,  however, 
as  we  see  from  the  following  passage  in  Dud- 
ley's letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln:  "  We 


36  St.  Botolph's  Town 

found  the  colony  in  a  sad  and  unexpected  con- 
dition, about  eighty  of  them  being  dead  the  win- 
ter before,  and  many  of  those  alive  weak  and 
sick;  all  the  corn  and  bread  amongst  them  all 
hardly  sufficient  to  feed  them  for  a  fortnight, 
insomuch  that  the  remainder  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty  servants  we  had  the  two  years  before 
sent  over,  coming  to  us  for  victuals  to  sustain 
them,  we  found  ourselves  wholly  unable  to  feed 
them  by  reason  that  the  provisions  shipped  for 
them  were  taken  out  of  the  ship  they  were  put 
in;  and  they  who  were  trusted  to  ship  them 
in  another  failed  us  and  left  them  behind 
whereupon  necessity  forced  us,  to  our  extreme 
loss,  to  give  them  all  liberty,  who  had  cost  us 
about  £16  or  £20  a  person  furnishing  and  send- 
ing over."  So,  far  from  being  able  to  take  in 
more  people,  Salem  had  to  relinquish  almost 
two  hundred  of  those  already  there!  Small 
wonder  that  Dudley  comments  dryly,  "  Salem, 
where  we  landed,  pleased  us  not." 

Accordingly,  Winthrop  and  his  friends 
moved  farther  south  along  the  coast  until  they 
came  to  the  spot  now  dear  to  our  country  as 
the  town  which  shelters  Bunker  Hill  Monu- 
ment. Here  they  established  their  settlement. 
And  here,  on  the  thirtieth  of  July,  1630,  Win- 
throp, Dudley,  Johnson  and  the  pastor  John 


In  Old  England  and  New  37 

Wilson  adopted  and  signed  a  simple  church 
covenant  which  was  the  foundation  of  the  inde- 
pendent churches  of  New  England.  Before 
leaving  England  this  band  of  colonists  had 
made  it  clear  that  they  were  not  "  Separatists 
from  the  Church  of  England  "  though  they  ad- 
mitted that  they  could  but  separate  themselves 
from  the  corruptions  in  it  in  order  that  they 
might  practise  the  positive  part  of  Church 
reformation  and  propagate  the  Gospel  in 
America.  We  must  remember  this  in  order  to 
justify  the  stand  taken  by  Winthrop,  a  little 
later,  in  dealing  with  Roger  Williams.  But  it 
is  necessary  also  to  bear  clearly  in  mind  the 
fact  of  this  established  church  at  Charlestown. 
To  set  up  a  state  in  which  there  should  be  no 
established  church  was  as  far  from  the  minds 
of  these  men  as  to  set  up  a  state  in  which  there 
should  be  no  established  government.  None 
the  less  they  esteemed  it  their  honour,  as  Win- 
throp expressly  said,  "  to  call  the  church  of 
England  our  dear  mother." 

By  August  the  little  company  was  appar- 
ently settled  for  good  in  Charlestown,  for  the 
first  Court  of  Assistants  had  now  been  held 
and  recommendations  as  to  "  how  the  minister 
should  be  maintained  "  adopted.  As  a  further 
step  towards  permanency  Governor  Winthrop, 


38  St.  Botolph's  Town 

as  we  are  told  in  the  town-records,  "  ordered 
his  house  to  be  cut  and  framed  there." 

Then  sickness  came  upon  them,  the  Lady 
Arbella  and  her  husband  being  among  the  first 
to  pass  away  in  the  land  from  which  they  had 
hoped  so  much.  Of  the  lady  Cotton  Mather  has 
said  quaintly  that  "  she  took  New  England  in 
her  way  to  Heaven. ' '  She  was  only  one  of  the 
many  who  died.  Johnson  in  his  "  Wonder- 
Working  Providence  "  records  that  "  in  almost 
every  family  lamentation,  mourning  and  woe 
were  heard,  and  no  fresh  food  to  be  had  to 
cherish  them.  It  would  assuredly  have  moved 
the  most  lockt  up  affections  to  tears,  had  they 
past  from  one  hut  to  another,  and  beheld  the 
piteous  case  these  people  were  in;  and  that 
which  added  to  their  present  distress  was  the 
want  of  fresh  water.  For,  although  the  place 
did  afford  plenty,  yet  for  present  they  could 
find  but  one  spring,  and  that  not  to  be  come  at, 
but  when  the  tide  was  down. ' ' 

Enter,  thereupon,  Mr.  William  Blackstone, 
as  the  saviour  of  the  enterprise!  Blackstone 
was  one  of  those  who  had  come  over  with 
Sir  Bobert  Gorges  and  had  remained  in  spite 
of  untoward  conditions.  On  Shawmut  (after- 
wards Boston)  he  possessed  large  holdings  by 
virtue  of  a  title  Winthrop  and  his  men  later 


In  Old  England  and  New  39 

acquired  by  purchase.  Xow,  therefore,  "  he 
came  and  acquainted  the  Governor  of  an  excel- 
lent Spring  there;  withal  inviting  him  and 
soliciting  him  thither.  "Whereupon  after  the 
death  of  Mr.  Johnson  and  divers  others,  the 
Governor,  with  Mr.  Wilson,  and  the  greatest 
part  of  the  church  removed  thither;  whither 
also  the  frame  of  the  Governor's  house,  in  pre- 
paration at  this  town,  was  also  (to  the  discon- 
tent of  some)  carried;  where  people  began  to 
build  there  houses  against  winter;  and  this 
place  was  called  Boston."  Thus  does  the 
record  incorporated  in  Frothingham's  "  His- 
tory of  Charlestown  "  tell  the  tale  of  Boston's 
actual  birth.  There  are  those  who  maintain 
that  the  story  of  our  city's  growth  could  very 
effectively  be  told  by  a  series  of  historical  ta- 
bleaux ;  for  the  initial  number  on  the  program 
they  name  with  excellent  judgment  the  picture 
of  Blackstone,  the  gentle  recluse,  exhibiting  to 
John  Wmthrop  the  "  excellent  spring  "  of  his 
own  domain. 

This  act  of  Blackstone 's  was  the  more  praise- 
worthy because  he  was  a  "  solitary  "  by  nature 
and  frankly  disliked  men  even  remotely  of 
Puritan  stripe.  He  was  at  this  time  about 
thirty-five  and  had  dwelt  in  his  lonely  hut  on 
the  west  slope  of  what  is  now  Beacon  Hill,  not 


40  St.  Botolph's  Town 

far  from  Beacon  and  Sprnce  streets,  for  about 
five  years,  spending  his  quiet  days  in  trade  with 
the  savages  and  in  the  cultivation  of  his  garden. 
Just  why  he  had  left  England  is  not  more  clear 
than  just  why  he  later  left  Boston.  But  when 
he  died  in  Rhode  Island  (May  26,  1675)  he  left 
behind  him  "  10  paper  books  "  in  which  it  is 
believed  he  may  have  told  the  story  of  his  mys- 
terious life.  These  were  unfortunately  des- 
troyed by  the  Indians  when  they  burned  his 
house,  however,  and  all  that  we  further  know 
of  him  is  that  he  returned  to  Boston,  after  he 
had  ceased  to  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  place,  and 
married  the  widow  of  John  Stephenson,  who 
lived  on  Milk  street,  on  the  site  of  the  build- 
ing in  which  Franklin  was  born. 

In  regard  to  a  name  for  the  new  settlement 
there  seems  to  have  been  absolute  unanimity. 
By  common  consent  it  was  called  after  the 
old-world  city,  St.  Botolph's  town,  or  Bos- 
ton, of  Lincolnshire,  England,  from  which  the 
Lady  Arbella  Johnson  and  her  husband  had 
come  and  in  whose  noble  parish  church 
John  Cotton  was  still  preaching.  The  order 
of  the  Court  of  Assistants,  —  Governor  Win- 
throp  presiding,  —  "That  Trimontaine  shall 
be  called  Boston  "  was  passed  on  the  17th  of 
September,  1630,  thus  giving  the  death  blow 


ST.    BOTOLPH S   CHURCH.    BOSTON,    ENGLAND 


In  Old  England  and  New  41 

to  Carlyle's  picturesque  statement  in  his  book 
on  Cromwell  concerning  Cotton's  share  in  the 
matter:  "  Eev.  John  Cotton  is  a  man  still  held 
in  some  remembrance  among  our  New  Eng- 
land friends.  He  had  been  minister  of  Boston 
in  Lincolnshire;  carried  the  name  across 
the  ocean  with  him;  fixed  it  upon  a  new  small 
home  he  found  there,  which  has  become  a  large 
one  since,  —  the  big  busy  capital  of  Massa- 
chusetts, —  Boston  so  called.  John  Cotton,  his 
mark,  very  curiously  stamped  on  the  face  of 
this  planet;  likely  to  continue  for  some  time." 
This  is  superb  writing,  of  course,  but  ex- 
ceedingly lame  history.  Cotton  did  not  come 
to  the  new  world  until  nearly  four  years  after 
this  settlement  was  named  Boston. 

But,  since  it  is  a  fact  that  the  St.  Botolph's 
town,  in  which  Cotton  was  still  living,  exercised 
a  profound  influence  upon  that  to  which  he 
presently  came  let  us  turn  aside  and  make  a 
little  pilgrimage  there.  Hawthorne  did  this 
during  one  of  his  trips  abroad  and  he  printed 
the  result  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  of  January, 
1862.  We  cannot  do  better,  I  think,  than  to 
follow  as  he  leads:  "  In  mid-afternoon  we  be- 
held the  tall  tower  of  Saint  Botolph's  Church 
(three  hundred  feet  high,  the  same  elevation 
as  the  tallest  tower  of  Lincoln  Cathedral^  loom- 


42  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ing  in  the  distance.  At  about  half-past  four 
we  reached  Boston  (which  name  has  been  short- 
ened, in  the  course  of  ages,  by  the  quick  and 
slovenly  English  pronunciation,  from  Botolph's 
town)  and  were  taken  by  a  cab  to  the  Peacock, 
in  the  market-place.  It  was  the  best  hotel  in 
town,  though  a  poor  one  enough;  and  we  were 
shown  into  a  small  stifled  parlor,  dingy,  musty, 
and  scented  with  stale  tobacco  smoke,  —  to- 
bacco smoke  two  days  old,  for  the  waiter  as- 
sured us  that  the  room  had  not  more  recently 
been  fumigated.  An  exceedingly  grim  waiter 
he  was,  too,  apparently  a  genuine  descend- 
ant of  the  old  Puritans  of  this  English  Bos- 
ton. 

"  In  my  first  ramble  about  the  town,  chance 
led  me  to  the  riverside,  at  that  quarter  where 
the  port  is  situated.  .  .  .  Down  the  river  I  saw 
a  brig,  approaching  rapidly  under  sail.  The 
whole  scene  made  an  odd  impression  of  bustle 
and  sluggishness  and  decay,  and  a  remnant  of 
wholesome  life;  and  I  could  not  but  contrast 
it  with  the  mighty  and  populous  activity  of  our 
own  Boston,  which  was  once  the  feeble  infant 
of  this  old  English  town ;  —  the  latter,  perhaps, 
almost  stationary  ever  since  that  day,  as  if  the 
birth  of  such  an  offspring  had  taken  away  its 
own  principle  of  growth.     I  thought  of  Long 


— J,  r*-~ 


In  Old  England  and  New  43 

Wharf  and  Faneuil  Hall,  and  Washington 
street  and  the  Great  Elm  and  the  State  House, 
and  exulted  lustily,  —  but  yet  began  to  feel 
at  home  in  this  good  old  town,  for  its  very 
name's  sake,  as  I  never  had  before  felt  in 
England. ' ' 

The  next  day  Hawthorne  visited  "  a  vacant 
spot  of  ground  where  old  John  Cotton's  vicar- 
age had  stood  till  a  very  short  time  since.  Ac- 
cording to  our  friend's  description  it  was  a 
humble  habitation,  of  the  cottage  order,  built 
of  brick,  with  a  thatched  roof.  In  the  right- 
hand  aisle  of  the  church  there  is  an  ancient 
chapel,  which  at  the  time  of  our  visit  was  in 
process  of  restoration,  and  was  to  be  dedicated 
to  Cotton,  whom  these  English  people  consider 
as  the  founder  of  our  American  Boston.  .  .  . 
The  interior  of  St.  Botolph's  is  very  fine  and 
satisfactory,  as  stately  almost  as  a  cathedral, 
and  has  been  repaired  —  as  far  as  repairs  were 
necessary  —  in  a  chaste  and  noble  style.  .  .  . 
When  we  came  away  the  tower  of  St.  Botolph's 
looked  benignantly  down;  and  I  fancied  that 
it  was  bidding  me  farewell,  as  it  did  Mr.  Cot- 
ton, two  or  three  hundred  years  ago,  and  telling 
me  to  describe  its  venerable  height  and  the 
town  beneath  it,  to  the  people  of  the  American 
city,  who  are  partly  akin,  if  not  to  the  living 


44  St.  Botolph's  Town 

inhabitants  of  old  Boston,  yet  to  some  of  the 
dust  that  lies  in  its  churchyard. ' ' 

It  is  of  this  tower  with  its  beacon  and  its 
bells  that  we  hear  in  Jean  Ingelow's  touching 
poem,  "  High  Tide  On  the  Coast  of  Lincoln- 
shire." St.  Botolph,  the  pious  Saxon  monk  of 
the  seventh  century,  who  is  believed  to  have 
founded  the  town,  received  his  name,  indeed,  — 
Bot-holp,  i.  e.  Boat-help,  —  from  his  service  to 
sailors;  and  the  high  tower  was  originally  de- 
signed to  be  a  guide  to  those  out  at  sea,  six 
miles  down  the  river.  An  account  of  the  town 
written  in  1541  tells  the  whole  story  in  one 
terse  paragraph:  "  Botolphstowne  standeth  on 
ye  river  of  Lindis.  The  steeple  of  the  church 
*  being  quadrata  Turris  '  and  a  lanthorn  on  it, 
is  both  very  high  &  faire  and  a  mark  bothe  by 
sea  and  land  for  all  ye  quarters  thereaboute. ' ' 

Perhaps  it  was  remembrance  of  what  the 
beacon  in  St.  Botolph's  tower  had  meant  to 
the  people  of  Lincolnshire  which  caused  the 
Court  of  Assistants,  assembled  in  new  Boston, 
to  pass  the  following  resolution  March  4,  1634 : 
"It  is  ordered  that  there  shalbe  forth  with  a 
beacon  sett  on  the  Centry  hill  at  Boston  to 
give  notice  to  the  Country  of  any  danger,  and 
that  there  shalbe  a  ward  of  one  pson  kept  there 
from  the  first  of  April  to  the  last  of  September ; 


In  Old  England  and  New  45 

and  that  upon  the  discovery  of  any  danger  the 
beacon  shalbe  fired,  an  allarum  given,  as  also 
messengers  presently  sent  by  that  town  where 
the  danger  is  discov'red  to  all  other  townes 
within  this  jurisdiction." 

Hawthorne  hints,  too,  that  it  is  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  old  St.  Botolph's  town  that  the 
winding  streets  of  our  modern  city  may  be  at- 
tributed. "  Its  crooked  streets  and  narrow 
lanes  reminded  me  much  of  Hanover  street, 
Ann  street,  and  other  portions  of  our  American 
Boston.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  local  habits  and  recollections  of  the  first 
settlers  may  have  had  some  influence  on  the 
physical  character  of  the  streets  and  houses 
in  the  New  England  metropolis;  at  any  rate 
here  is  a  similar  intricacy  of  bewildering  lanes 
and  a  number  of  old  peaked  and  projecting- 
storied  dwellings,  such  as  I  used  to  see  there 
in  my  boyish  days.  It  is  singular  what  a  home 
feeling  and  sense  of  kindred  I  derived  from 
this  hereditary  connection  and  fancied  physi- 
ognomical resemblance  between  the  old  town 
and  its  well-grown  daughter." 

Somewhat  less  romantic  but  still  appealing 
is  the  explanation  of  our  crooked  streets  volun- 
teered by  Bynner.  "  The  first  houses  [of  the 
colonial  period]  were  necessarily  of  the  rudest 


46  St.  Botolph's  Town 

description  and  they  seem  to  have  been  scat- 
tered hither  or  thither  according  to  individual 
need  or  fancy.  The  early  streets,  too,  obedient 
to  the  same  law  of  convenience,  naturally  fol- 
lowed the  curves  of  the  hills,  winding  around 
their  bases  by  the  shortest  routes  and  crossing 
their  slopes  at  the  easiest  angles.  To  the  pio- 
neer upon  the  western  prairie  it  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  lay  out  his  prospective  city  in 
squares  and  streets  of  unvarying  size  and 
shape,  and  oftentimes  be  it  said,  of  wearying 
sameness;  to  the  colonist  of  1630  upon  this 
rugged  promontory  of  New  England  it  was  a 
different  matter.  Without  the  power  of  leisure 
to  surmount  the  natural  obstacles  of  his  new 
home,  he  was  contented  to  adapt  himself  to 
them. 

"  Thus  the  narrow  winding  streets,  with 
their  curious  twists  and  turns,  the  crooked 
alleys  and  short-cuts  by  which  he  drove  his 
cows  to  pasture  up  among  the  blueberry  bushes 
of  Beacon  Hill,  or  carried  his  grist  to  the  wind- 
mill over  upon  Copp's  steeps,  or  went  to  draw 
his  water  at  the  spring-gate,  or  took  his  sober 
Sunday  way  to  the  first  rude  little  church,  — 
these  paths  and  highways,  worn  by  his  feet 
and  established  for  his  convenience,  remain 
after  two  centuries  and  a  half  substantially  un- 


In  Old  England  and  New  47 

changed,  endeared  to  his  posterity  by  priceless 
associations.  And  so  the  town,  growing  at  first 
after  no  plan  and  with  no  thought  of  propor- 
tion, but  as  directed  and  shaped  by  the  actual 
needs  of  the  inhabitants,  became  a  not  unfitting 
exponent  of  their  lives,  —  the  rough  outward 
garb,  as  it  were,  of  their  hardy  young  civiliza- 
tion." 

Truth,  however,  demands  the  statement  that 
our  forefathers  made  brave  efforts  to  compel 
a  ship-shape  city.  In  1635  it  was  ordered: 
"  That  from  this  day  there  shall  noe  house  at 
all  be  built  in  this  towne  neere  unto  any  of  the 
streetes  or  laynes  therein  but  with  the  advise 
and  consent  of  the  overseers  .  .  .  for  the 
more  comely  and  commodious  ordering  of 
them."  At  a  subsequent  meeting  in  the  same 
month  John  Gallop  was  summarily  told  to  im- 
prove the  alignment  of  the  "  payles  at  his 
yard's  end."  Very  likely  he  fought  off  the 
order,  however;  and  very  likely  dozens  of 
others  did  the  same,  regulating  their  homes  in 
the  fashion  attributed  to  those  settlers  of  Mar- 
blehead  who  are  said  to  have  remarked,  each 
to  the  other,  "I'm  a'goin'  to  set  here;  you  can 
set  where  you're  a  mind  to."  Apparently  just 
that  had  happened  in  the  old  St.  Botolph's 
town;  not  improbably  that  was  what  also  hap- 
pened in  the  new. 


IV 

THE    COMING    OF    A   SHINING   LIGHT 

The  earliest  and,  in  many  ways,  the  best 
account  of  Boston  life  in  the  winter  immedi- 
ately following  the  naming  of  the  town  was 
that  sent  by  Thomas  Dudley  in  a  letter  to  the 
Countess  of  Lincoln,  mother  of  Lady  Arbella 
Johnson.  The  explanation  of  this  letter's 
origin  is  found  in  a  note  which  Dudley  sent 
with  it  "to  the  righte  honourable,  my  very 
good  Lady,  the  Lady  Bryget,  Countesse  of 
Lincoln  "  in  the  care  of  Mr.  Wilson,  pastor 
of  the  First  Church,  who  sailed  from  Salem, 
April  1,  1631.  "  Madam,"  he  wrote,  "  your 
ltt'res  (which  are  not  common  or  cheape)  fol- 
lowing me  hether  into  New  England,  and  bring- 
ing with  them  renewed  testimonies  of  the  ac- 
customed favours  you  honoured  mee  with  in 
the  Old,  have  drawne  from  me  this  Narrative 
retribucon,  (which  in  respect  of  your  proper 
interest  in  some  persons  of  great  note  amongst 
us)  was  the  thankfullest  present  I  had  to  send 

48 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light        49 

over  the  seas.  Therefore  I  humbly  intreat 
your  Honour,  this  bee  accepted  as  payment 
from  him,  who  neither  hath  nor  is  any  more 
than  your  honour's  old  thankful  servant, 

"  Thomas  Dudley." 

Chronologically,  the  narrative  trips  in  places 
for  it  was  written,  as  Dudley  himself  says,  by 
the  fireside  on  his  knee,  in  the  midst  of  his 
family,  who  "  break  good  manners,  and  make 
me  many  times  forget  what  I  would  say  and  say 
what  I  would  not, "  at  a  time  when  he  had  ' '  no 
leisure  to  review  and  insert  things  forgotten, 
but  out  of  due  time  and  order  must  set  them 
down  as  they  come  to  memory."  None  the  less 
the  plain  unvarnished  descriptions  in  this  let- 
ter make  it  a  very  telling  one  and  when  we  put 
along  with  it  Winthrop's  brave  notes  to  his 
son  we  have  a  vivid  picture  of  the  hardships 
of  that  first  winter.  "  I  shall  expect  your 
mother  and  you  and  the  rest  of  my  company 
here  next  spring,  if  God  will  ..."  wrote  the 
governor.  "  Bring  some  good  oil,  pitch  and 
tar  and  a  good  piece  of  an  old  cable  to  make 
oakum;  for  that  which  was  sent  is  much  lost. 
Some  more  cows  should  be  brought,  especially 
two  new  milch,  which  must  be  well  mealed  and 
milked  by  the  way,  and  some  goats,  especially 


50  St.  Botolph's  Town 

sheep,  if  they  can  be  had.  Bring  some  store 
of  garlick  and  onions  and  conserve  of  red 
roses,  alum  and  aloes,  oiled  skins,  both  calf  and 
sheep  and  some  worsted  ribbing  of  several 
sizes." 

The  middle  of  August,  1631,  found  Margaret 
Winthrop  under  sail  for  the  new  world  and 
early  in  November  the  married  lovers  were  re- 
united after  their  sad  season  of  parting.  In 
honour  of  the  joyful  occasion  Governor  Brad- 
ford of  Plymouth  came  up  to  visit  the  head  of 
the  Massachusetts  Colony  and  "  divers  of  the 
assistants  and  most  of  the  people  of  the  near 
plantations  "  came  also  to  bid  the  lady  Mar- 
garet welcome,  bringing  with  them  "  great 
store  of  provisions,  as  fat  hogs,  kids,  venison, 
poultry,  geese  partridges  etc  so  as  the  like  joy 
and  manifestation  of  love  had  never  been  seen 
in  New  England.  It  was  a  great  marvel  that 
so  much  people  and  such  store  of  provisions 
could  be  gathered  together  at  so  few  hours' 
warning,"  recorded  the  happy  husband. 

The  resources  of  the  settlement,  as  the  last 
sentence  of  this  entry  clearly  shows,  were  still 
very  meagre.  And  the  governor  was  no  more 
prosperous  than  a  number  of  his  associates. 
In  fact,  he  was  poorer  than  they,  if  anything, 
for  he  had  no  assured  income  from  his  office 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light        51 

and  he  was  under  the  constant  necessity  of 
spending  money  for  the  common  good.  In  the 
fall  of  1634  Winthrop  presented  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  his  pecuniary  relations  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony  for  "  the  four  years  and  near 
an  half  ' '  in  which  he  had  held  the  office  of  chief 
magistrate  and  this  document  is  so  interesting 
that  it  is  here  given  entire  from  the  Eecords 
of  the  Colony.  It  speaks  more  eloquently  than 
we  could  in  many  pages  of  the  severe  simplicity 
of  those  early  days  in  Boston. 

"  "Whereas,  by  order  of  the  last  general 
court,  commissioners  were  appointed,  viz., 
Roger  Ludlow,  Esq.  the  deputy  governour,  and 
Mr.  Israel  Stoughton,  gent,  to  receive  my  ac- 
compt  of  such  things  as  I  have  received  and 
disbursed  for  public  use  in  the  time  of  my 
government ;  in  all  due  observance  and  submis- 
sion to  the  order  of  the  said  court,  I  do  make 
this  declaratory  accompt  ensuing :  — 

"  First,  I  affirm,  that  I  never  received  any 
moneys  or  other  goods  committed  to  me  in 
trust  for  the  commonwealth,  otherwise  than  is 
hereafter  expressed. 

"  Item,  I  acknowledge  I  have  in  my  custody 
certain  barrels  of  common  powder,  and  some 
match  and  drumheads,  with  some  things  be- 


52  St.  Botolph's  Town 

longing  to  the  ordnance;  which  powder,  being 
landed  at  Charlestown,  and  exposed  to  the  in- 
jury of  the  weather,  I  took  and  bestowed  first 
in  a  tent  which  I  made  of  mine  own  broad- 
cloth, (being  then  worth  eight  shillings  the 
yard  but  in  that  service  much  spoiled).  After  I 
removed  it  to  my  storehouse  at  Boston,  where 
it  still  remains,  save  that  some  of  it  hath  been 
spent  in  public  service,  and  five  barrels  I  sold 
to  some  ships  that  needed  them,  which  I  will 
allow  powder  or  money  for.  The  rest  I  am 
ready  to  deliver  up  to  such  as  shall  be  ap- 
pointed to  receive  them. 

"  I  received  also  some  meal  and  peas,  from 
Mr.  White  of  Dorchester  in  England,  and  from 
Mr.  Boe  of  London,  which  was  bestowed  upon 
such  as  had  need  thereof  in  the  several  towns; 
as  also  £10  given  by  Mr.  Thomson.  I  received 
also  from  Mr.  Humfrey,  some  rugs,  frieze 
suits,  shoes,  and  hose,  (the  certain  value 
whereof  I  must  know  from  himself,)  with  let- 
ters of  direction  to  make  use  of  the  greatest 
part  thereof,  as  given  to  help  bear  out  my 
charge  for  the  public.  I  paid  for  the  freight 
of  these  goods  and  disposed  of  the  greatest 
part  of  them  to  others;  but  how  I  cannot  set 
down.  I  made  use,  also,  of  two  pair  of  car- 
riage wheels,  which  I  will  allow  for :  I  had  not 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light        53 


meddled  with  them  but  that  they  lay  useless 
for  want  of  the  carriages  which  lay  in  Eng- 
land. For  my  disbursements,  I  have  formerly 
delivered  to  the  now  deputy  a  bill  of  part  of 
them,  amounting  to  near  £300,  which  I  dis- 
bursed for  public  services  divers  years  since, 
for  which  I  have  received  in  corn  at  six  shil- 
lings the  bushel,  (and  which  will  not  yeild  me 
above  four  shillings)  about  £180,  or  near  so 
much.  I  disbursed  also  for  the  transportation 
of  Mr.  Phillips  his  family  which  was  to  be 
borne  by  the  government  till  he  should  be 
chosen  to  some  particular  congregation. 

"  Now,  for  my  other  charges,  by  occasion  of 
my  place  of  government,  it  is  well  known  I 
have  expended  much,  and  somewhat  I  have  re- 
ceived towards  it,  which  I  should  have  rested 
satisfied  with,  but  that,  being  called  to  accompt, 
I  must  mention  my  disbursements  with  my  re- 
ceipts and,  in  both,  shall  refer  myself  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  court. 

"  I  was  first  chosen  to  be  governour  without 
my  seeking  or  expectation  (there  being  then 
divers  other  gent,  who  for  their  abilities  every 
way,  were  far  more  fit.)  Being  chosen  I  fur- 
nished myself  with  servants  and  provisions  ac- 
cordingly, in  a  far  great  proportion  than  I 
would  have  done  had  I  come  as  a  private  man, 


54  St.  Botolph's  Town 


or  as  an  assistant  only.  In  this  office  I  con- 
tinued four  years  and  near  an  half,  although 
I  earnestly  desired  in  every  election  to  have 
been  freed.  In  this  time  I  have  spent  above 
£500  per  annum,  of  which  £200  per  annum 
would  have  maintained  my  family  in  a  private 
condition.  So,  as  I  may  truly  say,  I  have  spent 
by  occasion  of  my  late  office,  above  £1,200. 
Towards  this  I  have  received  by  way  of  benev- 
olence, from  some  towns  about  £50  and  by  the 
last  year's  allowance  £150  and  by  some  pro- 
visions sent  by  Mr.  Humfrey,  as  is  before- 
mentioned,  about  £50,  or,  it  may  be,  somewhat 
more. 

"  I  also  disbursed,  at  our  coming  away,  in 
England,  for  powder  and  great  shot,  £216, 
which  I  did  not  put  into  my  bill  of  charges  for- 
merly delivered  to  the  now  deputy,  because  I 
did  expect  to  have  paid  myself  out  of  that 
part  of  Mr.  Johnson's  estate,  which  he  gave 
to  the  public;  but,  finding  that  it  will  fall  far 
short,  I  must  put  it  to  this  accompt. 

"  The  last  thing,  which  I  offer  to  the  consid- 
eration of  the  court,  is,  that  my  long  continu- 
ance in  the  said  office  hath  put  me  into  such 
a  way  of  unavoidable  charge,  as  will  be  still 
as  chargeable  to  me  as  the  place  of  governour 
will  be  to  some  others.    In  all  these  things,  I 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light        55 

refer  myself  to  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the 
court,  with  this  protestation,  that  it  repenteth 
me  not  of  my  cost  or  labour  bestowed  in  the 
service  of  this  commonwealth;  but  do  heartily 
bless  the  Lord  our  God,  that  he  hath  pleased 
to  honour  me  so  far  as  to  call  for  anything 
he  hath  bestowed  upon  me  for  the  service  of 
his  church  and  people  here,  the  prosperity 
whereof  and  his  gracious  acceptance,  shall  be 
an  abundant  recompense  to  me.  I  conclude 
with  this  one  request,  (which  in  justice  may 
not  be  denied  me)  that,  as  it  stands  upon  rec- 
ord that,  upon  the  discharge  of  my  office,  I  was 
called  to  accompt,  so  this  my  declaration  may 
be  recorded  also;  lest,  hereafter,  when  I  shall 
be  forgotten,  some  blemish  may  lie  upon  my 
posterity,  when  there  shall  be  nothing  to  clear 
it.  John  Winthrop." 

"  September  4, 1634." 

The  person  who  had  unconsciously  precip- 
itated all  this  calling  to  account  was  none  other 
than  "Winthrop 's  old  friend,  Rev.  John  Cotton, 
who,  almost  immediately  after  landing  in  Bos- 
ton, preached  a  sermon  in  which  he  maintained 
that  a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be  turned  into 
a  private  nian  without  just  eause.  This  was 
a  view  of  civil  government  not  at  all  palatable 


56  St.  Botolph's  Town 

to  the  Massachusetts  worthies  of  that  day  and, 
as  if  to  assert,  once  for  all  that  they  wished 
to  be  entirely  free  in  their  choice  of  a  supreme 
officer  they  chose  for  the  highest  office  in  their 
gift,  not  Winthrop  who  had  so  far  served  them 
continuously,  but  Thomas  Dudley,  his  former 
deputy.  Winthrop  entirely  acquiesced  in  this 
result  and  after  entertaining  the  new  governor 
handsomely  in  his  own  house  rendered  the 
above  account  of  his  stewardship,  which  had 
been  demanded  of  him.  Three  years  later  he 
was  again  chosen  chief  magistrate.  During 
twelve  of  the  nineteen  years  of  his  life  in  Bos- 
ton, indeed,  he  served  his  fellow  colonists  in 
this  capacity. 

No  doubt  the  Kev.  John  Cotton  was  sorely 
perplexed  and  not  a  little  chagrined  at  the 
change  in  the  government  which  his  first  effort 
in  his  new  pulpit  had  brought  about.  But  his 
had  been  an  exciting  life  and  he  was  fairly 
well  used  to  changes.  Born  in  1585,  a  son  of 
Eowland  Cotton,  a  lawyer  of  Derby,  England, 
he  had  entered  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
when  only  twelve  years  of  age  and  soon  became 
noted  for  his  acquirements.  At  nineteen  he 
was  admitted  to  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts. 
Soon  afterwards  he  received  the  appointment 
of  head  lecturer,  dean  and  catechist  of  Em- 


Photographed  from  the  Boston  Parish  Register 

Signature  of  John  Cotton,   1620 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light        57 

manuel  College.  Here  he  came  to  be  greatly 
loved  by  his  students  for  his  sweet  and  gentle 
disposition  and  prodigiously  admired  by  the 
distinguished  divines  of  the  time  for  his  grasp 
upon  the  doctrines  of  Calvin.  His  theological 
bent  being  what  it  was  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  he  should  have  been  called  to  St. 
Botolph's  until  one  learns  that  this  came  about 
through  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  Mayor 
who  voted  for  him  when  he  intended  to  vote 
against  him.  And  so  great  was  the  tact  of  the 
new  clergyman  that  he  was  able  to  hold  for 
many  years  a  place  gained  in  this  extraordi- 
nary way!  In  his  marriage  as  in  many  other 
things  Cotton  was  fortunate,  for  Elizabeth 
Horrocks,  with  whom  he  lived  eighteen  years, 
brought  him  on  his  wedding  day  the  "  assur- 
ance of  his  spiritual  redemption ;  hence  it  was 
a  day  of  double  marriage  to  him."  After  her 
death  he  married  "  one  Mrs.  Sarah  Story,  a 
vertuous  widow,  very  dear  to  his  former  wife." 
Eventually  the  news  of  Cotton's  non-con- 
formity got  to  the  ears  of  those  on  the  lookout 
for  heresy,  and  complaint  being  entered  at  the 
High  Commissioned  Court  that  "  the  Magis- 
trates did  not  kneel  at  the  Sacrament  "  and 
that  some  other  ceremonies  were  also  unob- 
served u  letters  missive   were   dispatched  in- 


58  St.  Botolph's  Town 

continently  to  convene  Mr.  Cotton "  before 
that  "  infamous  "  Court.  Some  time  previ- 
ously the  Earl  of  Dorset  had  promised  to  do 
what  he  could  for  Cotton  should  he  be  perse- 
cuted as  others  before  him  had  been,  but  now, 
when  appealed  to,  he  replied  "  that  if  Mr.  Cot- 
ton had  been  guilty  of  drunkenness,  of  unclean- 
ness,  or  any  such  lesser  fault,  he  could  have 
obtained  his  pardon;  but  inasmuch  as  he  had 
been  guilty  of  Nonconformity  and  Puritanism, 
the  crime  was  unpardonable  and  therefore  he 
must  fly  for  his  safety !  ' ' 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Cotton  travelled  in  dis- 
guise to  London  and  while  hesitating  between 
Holland,  Barbadoes  and  New  England  decided 
to  set  sail  for  the  last-named  place.  To  this 
decision  he  was  no  doubt  much  influenced  by 
the  pressing  invitations  of  friends  and  by 
"  letters  procured  from  the  Church  of  Boston 
by  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  Governor  of  the  Col- 
ony." Boston  in  New  England  was  certainly 
very  glad  to  welcome  him.  It  was  a  figurative 
saying  there  for  many  years  that  the  lamp  in 
the  lantern  of  St.  Botolph's  ceased  to  burn 
when  Cotton  left  that  church  to  become  a  shi- 
ning light  in  the  wilderness  of  New  England. 

His  ascendency  seems  to  have  been  a  purely 
personal   one,   however,     Though   Hutchinson 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light       59 

says  that  he  was  more  instrumental  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  civil  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical 
polity  of  New  England  than  any  other  person 
one  finds  little  in  his  writing  to  explain  his 
power.  And  the  "  insinuating  and  melting 
way  "  which  Hubband  attributed  to  him  is  con- 
spicuous chiefly  by  its  absence  from  the  pub- 
lished sermons  which  have  come  down  to  us. 
He  became  the  progenitor  of  many  of  the  best 
and  most  useful  citizens  Boston  has  had,  and 
these  good  people  are  ever  zealous  to  link  the 
Old  Boston  to  the  new.  This  very  winter  of 
1908,  for  instance,  they  have  been  approached 
by  the  mayor  of  the  old-world  city  to  help  re- 
pair a  portion  of  St.  Botolph's  church  as  a 
sign  of  love  for  its  "  shining  light." 

The  request  this  functionary  made  seems 
rather  odd  until  one  has  heard  what  our  Bos- 
ton gladly  did  in  this  respect  more  than  fifty 
years  ago.  The  story  is  told  briefly  in  a  sound- 
ing Latin  inscription  written  by  the  Honour- 
able Edward  Everett  and  engraved  upon  a 
memorial  plate  in  the  southwest  chapel  of  St. 
Botolph's,  now  called  Cotton  Chapel,  in  honour 
of  him  who  was  once  minister  of  the  church. 
Put  into  English  it  reads : 

"  In  perpetual  remembrance  of  John  Cotton 
who,  during  the  reigns  of  James  and  Charles 


60  St.  Botolph's  Town 

was,  for  many  years,  a  grave,  skilful  and  la- 
borious vicar  of  this  church.  Afterward,  on 
account  of  the  miserable  commotion  amongst 
sacred  affairs  in  his  own  country,  he  sought  a 
new  settlement  in  a  new  world,  and  remained 
even  to  the  end  of  his  life  a  pastor  and  teacher 
of  the  greatest  reputation  and  of  the  greatest 
authority  in  the  first  church  of  Boston  in  New 
England,  which  city  received  this  venerable 
name  in  honour  of  Cotton.  Two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  having  passed  away  since  his 
migration,  his  descendants  and  the  American 
citizens  of  Boston  were  invited  to  this  pious 
work  by  their  English  brethren  in  order  that 
the  name  of  an  illustrious  man,  the  love  and 
honour  of  both  worlds,  might  not  any  longer 
be  banished  from  that  noble  temple  in  which 
he  diligently,  learnedly  and  sacredly  ex- 
pounded the  divine  oracles  for  so  many  years; 
and  they  have  willingly  and  gratuitously 
caused  this  shrine  to  be  restored,  and  this  tab- 
let to  be  erected,  in  the  year  of  our  recovered 
salvation,  1855." 

Those  who  then  subscribed  to  the  chapel 
have,  almost  all  of  them,  descendants  bearing 
the  same  names  who  are  to-day  living  in  and 
about  Boston.  These  people  it  is,  no  doubt, 
who  will  gladly  respond  to  the  request  of  the 


COTTON    CHAPEL,    ST.    BOTULPH S,    BOSTON,    ENGLAND 


The  Coming  of  a  Shining  Light        61 

English  mayor.  For  the  original  contributors 
were,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  either  descend- 
ants of  John  Cotton,  or  husbands  of  wives  so 
descended.  To  the  former  class  belonged  John 
Eliot  Thayer,  who  gave  $250;  Edward,  Gor- 
ham,  Sidney  and  Peter  C.  Brooks,  who  gave 
$100  each,  and  John  Chipman  Gray,  who  gave 
$50.  Among  the  husbands  of  Cotton's  women 
descendants  who  contributed  were  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  Edward  Everett  and  Langdon 
Frothingham,  each  of  whom  gave  $100.  Other 
well-known  names  on  the  list  of  donors  are 
Nathan  and  William  Appleton,  George  Ban- 
croft, Martin  Brimmer,  Abbott  Lawrence,  John 
Amory  Lowell,  Jonathan  Phillips,  Jared 
Sparks,  Frederic  Tudor  and  John  Collins 
"Warren. 

The  good  feeling  between  the  two  Bostons, 
which  was  cemented  by  these  generous  gifts 
toward  the  Cotton  Chapel,  seems  to  date  from 
the  reopening  of  the  church,  two  years  earlier, 
for  which  occasion  several  gentlemen  from  our 
Boston  were  invited  to  England,  at  least  four 
of  whom  were  able  to  be  present. 

In  our  public  library  may  be  found  a  curious 
little  sheet  which  gives  an  account  of  the  exer- 
cises. In  print  so  poor  and  so  small  as  to 
nearly  ruin  the  eyes  are  there  recorded  the 


62  St.  Botolph's  Town 


speeches  of  the  day.  One  of  these,  made  by 
Col.  T.  B.  Lawrence  of  this  city,  expresses 
regret  that  "  the  domestic  institutions  of  the 
states  of  the  south  "  were  being  warmly  de- 
bated in  the  English  drawing-rooms  of  that 
time.  Happily,  Cotton's  Boston  descendants 
did  not  all  think  alike  on  this  important  sub- 
ject ! 


SIR   HARRY   VANE PROPHET   AND    MARTYR 

Thomas  Dudley,  whom  Cotton's  zeal  had 
caused  to  be  chosen  as  Winthrop's  successor, 
was  himself  left  out  of  the  governorship  at 
the  election  of  May,  1635,  and  John  Haynes 
elected  in  his  stead.  Then  there  arrived  in 
Boston  two  men  of  very  different  character 
both  of  whom,  however,  were  destined  to  make 
a  deep  mark  in  the  history  of  their  time  and 
eventually  to  die  on  the  scaffold  for  allegiance 
to  the  truth  as  they  saw  it.  These  two  men 
were  Hugh  Peters  and  Sir  Harry  Vane. 
Peters  had  been  the  pastor  of  the  English 
church  in  Rotterdam  and  had  there  been  per- 
secuted by  the  English  ambassador.  Vane 
was  heir  to  Sir  Harry  Vane,  Comptroller  of 
the  king's  household,  a  man  of  great  impor- 
tance in  the  politics  of  the  time.  And  his  son 
has  a  personality  of  so  much  interest  that  I 
am  resolved  to  trace  his  life  fom  its  bright 
beginning  to  its  glorious   end  even  if,   in  so 

63 


64  St.  Botolph's  Town 

doing,  I  run  somewhat  ahead  of  my  narrative 
and  carry  my  readers  far  away  from  Boston 
in  New  England.  The  fact  is  that  one  usually 
encounters  only  the  Massachusetts  segment  of 
Vane's  wonderful  life  and  so  is  deprived  of 
opportunity  to  judge  his  career  in  its  whole- 
ness and  to  realize  that  he,  more  than  any 
other  man,  is  the  "  link  that  binds  together 
the  severed  divisions  of  the  English-speaking 
race." 

One  American  writer,  Charles  Wentworth 
Upham,  has  pointed  out  in  the  preface  to  his 
really  capital  "  Life  of  Sir  Harry  Vane,"  that 
there  is  an  interesting  parallel  between  the 
career  of  this  hero  and  that  of  Lafayette. 
Both  were  scions  of  an  aristocratic  house  and 
might  easily  have  passed  their  youth  follow- 
ing the  pleasures  of  court  life  and  indulging 
in  those  enervating  relaxations  commonly  as- 
sociated with  young  aristocrats.  Instead, 
however,  both  yearned  towards  America, 
Lafayette  because  he  saw  in  the  new  land  a 
chance  to  realize  the  vision  of  political  free- 
dom which  illumined  his  young  soul,  Harry 
Vane  because  he  thought  to  find  here  "  free- 
dom to  worship  God."  Both  paid  dearly  in 
youth  and  in  middle  life  for  their  devotion  to 
an  ideal,  and  Vane  finally  suffered  death  upon 


Sir  Harry  Vane  65 

the  block.  But  because  of  them  American  his- 
tory contains  at  least  two  highly  romantic 
chapters  and  is  more  deeply  inspiring  than  it 
could  ever  have  been  without  them.  For  each 
served  in  his  own  era  to  point  the  truth  that 
the  only  really  great  man  is  he  who,  with  never 
a  thought  of  self,  unswervingly  "  follows  the 
gleam  "  even  when  it  leads  to  exile,  prison  and 
death. 

Sir  Harry  Vane  was  born  in  1612,  one  of  a 
very  numerous  family  of  children.  His  father 
had  been  knighted  by  James  I  and  though  only 
in  the  early  twenties  at  the  time  of  the  younger 
Harry's  birth,  was  already  on  the  way  to 
eminence  in  the  government  of  England.  At 
the  preparatory  school  in  Westminster  and 
while  at  Magdalen  College  in  Oxford  young 
Vane  bade  fair  to  follow  a  similar  career  along 
the  line  of  least  resistance.  He  was  gay,  ad- 
dicted to  pleasure  and,  as  he  himself  says,  fond 
of  "  good  fellowship."  But  when  he  was 
about  seventeen  he  began  to  interest  himself 
in  theology  and,  the  fascination  of  this  subject 
growing  rapidly  upon  him,  he  pursued  it 
further  and  further,  at  the  same  time  aliena- 
ting himself  as  a  natural  result  from  the  form 
of  worship  and  doctrine  established  by  law. 
When  the  period  of  his  matriculation  arrived 


66  St.  Botolph's  Town 

he  declined  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and, 
leaving  Oxford,  passed  over  to  Holland  and 
France,  finally  settling  down  for  some  time  in 
Geneva. 

Residence  in  the  stronghold  of  Calvinism 
naturally  strengthened  the  young  man's  bent 
towards  doctrinal  speculations  and  spiritual 
exercises  and  as  it  was  never  part  of  his  habit 
to  conceal  his  opinions,  the  king  was  soon 
being  informed  by  his  bishops  that  the  heir 
of  an  important  family,  closely  connected  with 
the  throne,  had  conceived  a  dislike  for  the  dis- 
cipline and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. Whereupon,  Laud  was  instructed  to  ex- 
postulate with  the  young  Puritan  and  wean 
him  back  to  the  true  faith.  The  young  dis- 
senter had  learned  his  new  lesson  well,  how- 
ever, and  he  was  much  more  than  a  match  for 
Laud  in  theological  discussion.  Perceiving 
which,  the  haughty  prelate  lost  his  temper  and 
tried  to  threaten  where  he  could  not  persuade. 
This  naturally  did  not  endear  his  doctrines  to 
Harry  Vane,  whose  ardent  soul  was  aflame 
with  love  for  the  meek  and  gentle  One  Laud 
only  professed  to  serve.  Accordingly  he  an- 
nounced his  purpose  of  going  to  New  England, 
where  those  who  believed  as  he  did  stood  ready 
to  give  him  a  warm  welcome  and,  although  his 


Harry  Vane 
Afterwards  Sir  Henry  Vane 


Sir  Harry  Vane  67 

father  at  first  opposed  the  plan,  he  soon  as- 
sented to  it,  having  found  the  king  to  be  quite 
in  favour  of  removing  the  aristocratic  heretic. 

The  excitement  occasioned  by  the  coming  to 
the  colony  of  this  brilliant  youth,  not  yet 
twenty-three,  who  was  heir  to  a  title  and  a  fine 
estate,  whose  hand  had  not  yet  been  pledged 
in  marriage  and  who  was,  besides,  exceedingly 
handsome  and  distinguished-looking,  can  be 
better  imagined  than  described.  That  he 
should  at  such  an  age,  after  visiting  foreign 
capitals  and  witnessing  all  the  splendours  and 
enticements  which  the  gay  and  brilliant  world 
holds  out  to  those  of  his  rank  and  condition, 
voluntarily  take  up  the  self-denying  unevent- 
ful life  of  the  Boston  of  that  day  was  held  to 
mean,  as  indeed  it  did  mean,  deep  desire  to 
realize  himself  spiritually.  Accordingly  AVin- 
throp  and  the  rest  gave  him  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  without  any  of  the  usual  delays 
and,  within  a  month  after  his  arrival  young 
Vane  found  himself  an  honoured  member  of 
John  Cotton's  congregation. 

A  year  later  he  was  chosen  governor  of  the 
colony,  "Winthrop,  who  was  twice  his  age,  being 
appointed  his  deputy.  "  Because  he  was  son 
and  heir  to  a  Privy  Councillor  in  England,  the 
ships  congratulated  his  election  with  a  volley 


68  St.  Botolph's  Town 

of  great  shot,"  comments  the  Journal.  But 
Vane  deserved  the  salutes  of  the  cannon  on 
his  own  account  as  well  as  on  his  family's. 
He  was  a  remarkable  youth.  In  the  perplexing 
civil  and  religious  controversies  which  now 
came  crowding  thick  and  fast,  he  soon  found 
scope,  however,  for  all  the  tolerance  and  good 
judgment  he  could  possibly  command. 

The  most  appealing  of  these  controversies, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  care 
chiefly  for  the  human  side  of  history,  was 
that  which  centred  about  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  A 
later  chapter  will  discuss  this  matter  in  some 
detail,  so  we  will  here  touch  upon  it  only  so 
far  as  it  concerns  the  young  governor,  precip- 
itated, at  twenty-four,  into  disputes  that  would 
have  made  many  an  older  head  ache  with  their 
complexities.  Like  a  youth  he  took  the  gen- 
erous and  what  proved  to  be  the  wrong  (?) 
side  of  the  question.  And  this,  added  to  the 
fact  that  his  sudden  elevation  had  nursed  deep 
jealousies  of  him,  proved  his  undoing  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. Naught  did  it  avail  that  he  showed 
great  sagacity  in  dealing  with  the  Indians  and 
extraordinary  tact  in  smoothing  the  ruffled 
sensibilities  of  the  older  magistrates.  The  fact 
remained  that  he  was  too  popular  with  the 
masses,  too  young,  too  handsome,  too  zealous 


Sir  Harry  Vane  69 

for  liberty  of  conscience  to  be  acceptable  to 
those  who  had  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of 
colonization  and  who  saw  their  hard-won  peace 
threatened  by  people  with  opinions  subversive 
of  theirs. 

Even  the  noble  Winthrop  indulged,  on  at 
least  one  occasion,  in  jealousy  of  Vane's  pop- 
ularity. The  case  in  point  occurred  after  the 
elder  man  had  again  been  elected  governor 
and  so  would,  in  the  natural  order  of  things, 
have  entertained  all  distinguished  visitors 
from  abroad.  But  Lord  James  Ley  (after- 
wards the  Earl  of  Marlborough)  snubbed  his 
advances.  He  was  then  only  a  youth  of  nine- 
teen and  he  made  no  secret  of  preferring  the 
society  of  the  magnetic  Vane  to  that  of  the  dig- 
nified Winthrop.  Vane  had  no  house  of  his 
own  for,  upon  arriving  in  Boston,  he  went  to 
live  with  Mr.  Cotton  and  there,  or  in  an  addi- 
tion made  to  the  parsonage,  stayed  throughout 
his  sojourn  in  Boston.  But  if  he  could  not 
entertain  Lord  Ley  in  his  own  mansion  he 
could  put  him  up  at  the  inn  of  a  friend,  which 
he  at  once  proceeded  to  do,  Winthrop  at  the 
moment  being  away  on  a  two-days'  visit  to 
Lynn  and  Salem.  The  inn  in  question  was  that 
of  Mr.  Cole  l  and  when  the  governor,  upon  his 

1  See  "  Among  Old  New  England  Inns." 


70  St.  Botolph's  Town 

return,  proffered  hospitality  to  Lord  Ley,  the 
latter  politely  declined,  saying  he  "  came  not 
to  be  troublesome  to  any  and  the  house  where 
he  was,  was  so  well  governed  that  he  could  be 
as  private  here  as  elsewhere."  That  Win- 
throp  deeply  resented  this  and  an  incident  that 
followed  is  shown  by  an  entry  in  his  Journal 
under  date  of  July,  1637:  "  The  differences 
grew  so  much  here,"  he  wrote,  referring  to 
the  religious  troubles,  "  as  tended  fast  to  a 
separation;  so  as  Mr.  Vane  being  among  oth- 
ers, invited  by  the  Governor  to  accompany  the 
Lord  Ley  at  dinner,  not  only  refused  to  come, 
alleging  by  letter  that  his  conscience  withheld 
him,  but  also,  at  the  same  hour,  he  went  over 
to  Noddle's  Island  to  dine  with  Mr.  Maverick, 
and  carried  the  Lord  Ley  with  him."  This 
happened  at  the  end  of  Vane's  stay  in  Amer- 
ica, however,  and  we  are  only  at  the  beginning. 
The  first  act  of  his  administration,  accom- 
plished within  a  week  of  his  induction  into 
office,  was  one  at  which  no  one  could  cavil.  It 
was  an  amicable  arrangement  by  which  all  in- 
ward-bound vessels  agreed  to  come  to  anchor 
below  the  fort  in  the  harbour  and  wait  there 
for  the  governor's  pass;  further,  the  captains 
agreed  to  submit  their  invoices  to  the  inspec- 
tion   of    the    government    before    discharging 


Sir  Harry  Vane  71 

their  cargoes ;  and,  in  addition,  they  gave  their 
word  that  their  crews  should  never  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  on  shore  after  sunset  except 
under  urgent  necessity.  These  measures,  all 
of  which  made  for  the  preservation  of  order 
in  the  community,  were  exceedingly  important ; 
but  only  a  Vane  could  have  carried  them 
through,  for  they  required  the  kind  of  han- 
dling no  previous  governor  could  give. 

Soon,  however,  there  arose  a  complication 
which  no  human  creature  could  have  solved 
to  the  satisfaction  of  everybody.  A  contuma- 
cious mate  of  the  British  vessel  Hector,  ob- 
serving that  the  king's  colours  were  not  dis- 
played at  the  fort,  declared,  on  the  deck  of  his 
vessel  and  in  the  presence  of  many  of  the 
townspeople  then  visiting  her,  that  the  colo- 
nists were  all  "  traitors  and  rebels."  Of 
course,  the  government  had  to  take  cognizance 
of  this  and,  equally  of  course,  the  mate  was 
made  to  apologize.  But,  after  the  dignity  of 
the  colony  had  been  vindicated,  the  fact  still 
remained  that  the  king's  colours  were  not  fly- 
ing at  the  fort  and  the  British  officers  could 
not  say  that  they  were  should  news  of  the  af- 
fair be  wafted  back  to  England  and  the  king 
moved  to  ask  questions  about  the  matter. 
Would  not  the  governor,  then,  be  so  kind  as 


72  St.  Botolph's  Town 

to  run  np  a  flag,  just  to  save  their  consciences'? 

Now,  on  the  surface,  this  seemed  an  exceed- 
ingly reasonable  request  for  British  officers  to 
make  of  a  colony  which  held  a  charter  from  the 
crown  and  resented  as  an  insult  the  imputa- 
tion that  they  were  "  rebels."  But  the  Eng- 
lish flag  displayed  a  "  papal  cross,"  an  abom- 
ination no  Puritan  could  bear!  And  on  the 
board  of  magistrates  who  were  requested  to 
hoist  this  ensign  sat  John  Endicott  who,  in  a 
fit  of  insensate  rage  against  the  "  emblem  of 
papacy,"  had  cut  the  red  cross  out  of  the  flag! 
The  issue  was  for  a  time  deferred  by  the  ex- 
planation that  the  whole  colony  contained  not 
a  single  flag.  But  when  the  unsuspecting  cap- 
tains courteously  offered  to  present  a  flag  to 
be  hoisted  at  the  fort,  the  magistrates,  unable 
longer  to  dodge  the  issue,  had  to  explain  how 
matters  stood.  But  they  promised  to  display 
the  king's  colours  on  the  king's  fort,  though 
protesting  that  they  were  fully  persuaded  that 
the  cross  in  those  same  colours  seemed  to  them 
idolatrous.  The  matter  being  thus  adjusted 
to  the  satisfaction  of  everybody,  the  confer- 
ence was  brought  to  a  close. 

But  the  clergy,  who  had  a  finger  in  every 
pie,  were  yet  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  when 
the  case  was  submitted  to  them,  that  evening, 


John  Endicott 


Sir  Harry  Vane  73 

in  accordance  with  the  practice  of  the  govern- 
ment upon  all  important  and  difficult  questions, 
they  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that  the  magis- 
trates had  erred  in  saying  that  a  flag  bearing 
the  badge  of  Romish  superstition  should  be 
displayed  on  any  terms  whatever  over  Puritan 
soil.  Whereupon  the  poor  captains  were  or- 
dered to  appear  next  morning,  the  whole  mat- 
ter was  again  threshed  out  and  the  board 
voted,  on  reconsideration,  not  to  display  the 
flag.  Governor  Vane,  though  as  conscientious 
a  Puritan  as  any  of  them,  could  not  sympa- 
thize with  such  proceedings.  They  seemed  to 
him  not  only  inconsistent  but  absurdly  over- 
scrupulous. Mr.  Dudley  agreed  with  him  and, 
the  magistrates  obstinately  adhering  to  their 
last  determination,  the  flag  was  displayed  with- 
out the  authority  of  the  government  and  upon 
the  personal  responsibility  of  Mr.  Vane  and 
Mr.  Dudley.  In  this  case,  as  in  dozens  of  crises 
which  came  later  in  his  life,  Sir  Harry  exhib- 
ited an  admirable  sense  of  proportion  and  jus- 
tified Milton's  characterization  of  him  as 
"  Vane,  young  in  year,  but  in  sage  counsel 
old."  For  had  he  not  taken  the  action  which 
he  did  on  this  occasion  the  colony  would  with- 
out doubt  have  been  precipitated  into  enor- 
mous difficulties  with  which  it  was  in  no  posi- 


74  St.  Botolph's  Town 

tion  then  to  cope.  But,  of  course,  he  had  to 
pay  the  price  of  his  diplomacy.  Had  he  not 
begun  his  career  by  defying  the  clergy?  The 
attitude  which  he  took  in  the  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
affair  naturally  did  not  help  his  cause.  He 
believed  with  all  his  soul  in  religious  liberty 
and,  into  the  bargain,  he  admired  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson as  a  woman  of  unquestionable  piety  as 
well  as  talent.  Moreover,  he  was  fresh  from 
Geneva,  where  the  impress  of  Calvin  was  still 
sharp  and  inclined  all  interested  in  intellectual 
pursuits  to  a  delight  in  fine-spun  theological 
discussion. 

The  occasion  of  his  break  with  the  ruling 
powers  was,  however,  a  law  passed  after  Win- 
throp  was  again  governor  to  the  effect  that  a 
heavy  penalty  should  be  imposed  upon  any 
person  who  should  receive  into  his  house  a 
stranger  coming  with  intent  to  reside,  or  let 
to  such  an  one  a  lot  or  habitation,  without,  in 
every  instance,  obtaining  particular  permis- 
sion of  one  of  the  standing  council,  or  two  of 
the  assistant  magistrates;  and  a  large  fine  was 
also  to  be  levied  upon  any  person,  which  should 
without  such  permission,  allow  a  stranger  a 
residence.  This  law  was  aimed  to  prevent  the 
reception  into  the  colony  of  several  friends  of 
Rev.    John    Wheelwright,    who    would    have 


Sir  Harry  Vane  75 

joined  the  Hutchinson  faction,  but  it  was  felt 
by  many  beside  Harry  Vane  to  be  a  violation 
of  the  rights  of  the  people.  So  incensed  were 
the  inhabitants  of  Boston  that  they  refused 
to  meet  the  governor,  as  was  their  custom, 
when  he  returned  from  the  legislature.  Vane's 
stand  in  the  matter  was  the  broad  liberty-lov- 
ing one  of  a  man  cosmopolitan  by  nature,  Win- 
throp's  that  of  a  colonist  bent,  above  every- 
thing else,  upon  preserving  peace  in  the  coun- 
try for  which  he  had  given  his  all.  Both  were 
honest  with  themselves  and  right  from  their 
own  standpoint,  only  Vane  had  the  far  view 
as  against  Winthrop's  short  sight.  In  all  jus- 
tice to  the  latter,  however,  it  seems  fair  to  re- 
member that  he  had  suffered  much  more  than 
Vane  for  the  peace  he  was  bent  upon  securing. 
Nor  could  he  sail  away,  as  Vane  soon  did,  to 
a  glorious  career  elsewhere.  It  is  good,  in  this 
connection,  to  be  able  to  record  that  Vane 
never  forgot  the  country  to  which  he  had  dedi- 
cated his  ardent  youth,  and  that  "Winthrop  has 
left  to  posterity  this  cordial  eulogy  of  the  man 
who,  for  a  time,  utterly  eclipsed  him  in  a  com- 
munity of  which  he  was  founder  and  patri- 
arch: "  Although  he  might  have  taken  occa- 
sion against  us  for  some  dishonor,  which  he 
apprehended  to  have  been  unjustly  put  upon 


76  St.  Botolph's  Town 

him  here,  yet  he  showed  himself  at  all  times 
a  true  friend  to  New  England  and  a  man  of 
noble  and  generous  mind." 

Soon  after  returning  to  England  Vane  mar- 
ried, and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as  though  he 
would  remain  in  retirement  and  lead  the  quiet 
happy  life  of  an  English  country-gentleman. 
But  in  the  spring  of  1640  he  was  induced  to 
enter  Parliament  and,  soon  after,  he  was  made 
Treasurer  of  the  Navy  and  knighted  by  King 
Charles.  Almost  immediately,  as  a  result  of 
this  preferment,  he  was  singled  out  for  ven- 
geance and  insult  by  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth, 
afterward  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  The  means 
chosen  by  Wentworth  to  incense  Sir  Harry 
seems  rather  clumsy  to  us  of  to-day.  The  fam- 
ily seat  of  the  Vanes  was  Eaby  Castle,  and  it 
was  here  that  Sir  Harry's  father  had  been 
wont  to  entertain  King  Charles  with  such  feu- 
dal splendour  and  princely  pageantry  as  Scott 
has  described  for  all  time  in  "  Kenilworth. ' ' 
To  this  castle  the  younger  Sir  Harry  Vane 
would  naturally  fall  heir,  and  so,  purely  out 
of  contempt,  as  Wentworth 's  own  biographer 
admits,  the  Earl  of  Strafford  had  his  patent 
to  the  peerage  made  out  with  the  style  and 
title  Baron  Raby  of  Raby  Castle,  "  an  act  of 
the    most    unnecessary    provocation    and    one 


Sir  Harry  Vane  77 

which  was  the  chief  occasion  of  the  loss  of 
Strafford's  head." 

For  the  elder  Sir  Harry  Vane  was  not  of  a 
forgiving  nature  and,  from  now  on,  he  pur- 
sued Lord  Strafford  with  a  fixed  and  deadly 
hostility.  His  son,  on  the  other  hand,  felt 
himself  free  of  embarrassing  loyalties  to  a  king 
who  would  permit  his  father  to  be  so  insulted 
and  he  forthwith  devoted  himself  openly  to 
the  advocacy  of  those  principles  of  freedom  for 
which  he  had  always  contended.  When  Charles 
dissolved  Parliament  because  it  had  not  voted 
him  the  supplies  he  had  asked  for  our  Sir 
Harry  was  immediately  reelected.  And  as  he 
was  now  in  the  Long  Parliament  (so  called  in 
consequence  of  an  act  which  it  passed  early  in 
its  session,  and  which  the  king  was  infatuated 
enough  to  sign,  by  which  the  body  was  assured 
against  its  own  dissolution,  except  by  its  con- 
sent in  both  houses),  the  young  member  for 
Kingston  upon  Hull  was  for  quite  a  term  of 
years  in  a  position  greatly  to  influence  the  Eng- 
land of  his  time. 

Here,  as  in  the  Massachusetts  colony,  he  soon 
came  to  be  a  leader.  Hallam,  in  his  Constitu- 
tional History  of  England,  accounts  for  this 
fact  thus :  "  He  was  not  only  incorrupt  but  dis- 
interested, inflexible  in  conforming  his  public 


78  St.  Botolph's  Town 

conduct  to  his  principles,  and  averse  to  every 
sanguinary  and  oppressive  measure;  qualities 
not  common  in  revolutionary  chiefs."  This 
very  temperate  dictum  gives  one  rather  a  chill 
for  the  fact  of  the  matter  was  that  Vane  was 
positively  heroic  in  his  contention  for  peace 
and  liberty  of  conscience  and  abhorred  every 
form  of  persecution  and  bigotry.  Great  as  was 
his  personal  dislike  for  all  that  Papacy  implied, 
he  so  exerted  himself  in  the  cause  of  Catholic 
emancipation  as  to  bring  down  upon  his  head 
denunciations  from  Protestants  whose  cause 
he  would  have  died  for.  Similarly,  in  the  nego- 
tiations between  Charles  and  the  Parliament, 
he  struggled  with  all  his  might  for  such  terms 
as  would  assure  to  the  people  the  rights  which 
they  had  lost.  And  yet,  when  Colonel  Pride 
forcibly  ejected  the  members  opposed  to  his 
views  and  principles  he  would  not  stay  with 
"  The  Rump,"  preferring  retirement  to  a  tri- 
umph gained  in  so  illegal  a  manner.  Of  all  the 
republicans  he  alone  refused  to  profit  by  power 
thus  gained. 

Consequently  Sir  Harry  Vane  cannot  be  held 
in  the  least  degree  responsible  for  the  impeach- 
ment, trial  and  execution  of  King  Charles.  He 
heartily  disapproved  of  the  whole  proceeding. 
And  when  Cromwell  came  to  him  in  February, 


Sir  Harry  Vane  79 

1649,  to  urge  the  purity  of  his  intentions  as 
a  reason  for  Vane's  becoming  a  member  of  the 
Council  Sir  Harry  only  reluctantly  agreed  to 
accept  the  honour  and  would  not  take  the  oath 
of  office  until  the  clause  which  approved  of  the 
trial  and  condemnation  of  Charles  was  struck 
out. 

In  the  foreign  wars  which  followed  Vane 
bore  a  glorious  part  and  when  the  people  felt 
as  too  oppressive  the  taxes  these  struggles  en- 
tailed he  voluntarily  relinquished  the  profits  of 
his  office  as  treasurer  and  commissioner  for  the 
navy.  Later,  when  Cromwell  followed  the  des- 
perate determination  which  had  insidiously 
taken  possession  of  him  and  on  April  20,  1653, 
grasped  once  for  all  the  power  with  which  he 
had  been  dallying,  Vane  was  the  first  to  leap 
to  his  feet  in  stinging  rebuke  of  his  treacherous 
course.  We  are  not  surprised  to  read  in  his- 
tory that  Oliver's  retort  to  this  was  the  excla- 
mation, in  a  fit  of  unbounded  passion,  "  Sir 
Harry  Vane!  Sir  Harry  Vane!  Good  Lord 
deliver  me  from  Sir  Harry  Vane."  After 
which  he  seized  the  records,  snatched  the  bill 
from  the  hands  of  the  clerk,  drove  the  members 
out  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  locked  the 
doors,  put  the  key  in  his  pocket  and  returned 
to  Whitehall  to  observe  that  the  spirit  of  God 


80  St.  Botolph's  Town 

had  been  too  strong  upon  him  longer  to  be  re- 
sisted. 

Tyranny  once  more  having  the  upper  hand 
in  England  there  was  nothing  for  Sir  Harry 
Vane  to  do  but  again  to  retire  to  Raby  Castle 
and  pursue  his  philosophical  and  theological 
studies  while  awaiting  a  time  when  he  could 
again  serve  the  "  good  cause,"  as  he  termed 
it,  of  the  people's  rights  and  liberties.  The 
occasion  for  which  he  longed  came  duly.  Fol- 
lowing his  policy  of  giving  a  sanctimonious 
face  to  each  new  encroachment  upon  liberty 
the  Protector,  as  a  step  in  his  plan  to  make 
himself  king  and  settle  upon  his  descendants 
forever  the  crown  he  had  wrested  from  its 
rightful  owner,  published,  on  March  15,  1656, 
a  declaration  calling  upon  the  people  to  observe 
a  general  fast  to  the  end  that  counsel  and  direc- 
tion might  come  to  the  government  from  Prov- 
idence concerning  the  best  ways  of  promoting 
peace  and  happiness  in  England. 

To  Cromwell's  unbounded  surprise  and  in- 
dignation Sir  Harry  Vane  took  him  at  his  word 
and  composed  a  paper  entitled  "  A  Healing 
Question  propounded  and  resolved,  upon  Occa- 
sion of  the  late  public  and  seasonable  Call  to 
Humiliation  in  order  to  Love  and  Union 
amongst  the  honest  Party,  and  with  a  Desire 


Oliver  Cromwell 


Sir  Harry  Vane  81 

to  apply  Balm  to  the  Wound,  before  it  become 
incurable.  By  Henry  Vane,  Knight."  With 
perfect  good  faith  he  transmitted  his  paper 
privately  to  Cromwell  before  giving  to  the 
world  any  hint  of  the  advice  therein  contained. 
But  when,  after  the  lapse  of  a  month,  the  man- 
uscript was  returned  without  comment  Sir 
Harry  immediately  issued  it  from  the  press 
together  with  a  Postscript  in  which  allusion 
was  made  to  the  fact  that  it  had  been  previ- 
ously communicated  to  Cromwell. 

Now,  whether  Cromwell  had  read  the  manu- 
script or  not  we  shall  never  know,  but  he  was 
furious  at  its  publication  and  sent  Vane  a  per- 
emptory and  harshly-worded  summons  to  ap- 
pear at  once  before  the  Council  on  the  ground 
that  his  paper  tended  to  the  disturbance  of  the 
present  government  and  the  peace  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. Of  course  it  did,  for  in  this,  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  documents  ever  penned 
by  man,  Vane  had  asserted,  for  the  first  time 
in  history,  the  need  of  a  written  constitution 
or  body  of  fundamental  laws  by  which  the  gov- 
ernment itself  should  be  controlled!  Tn  an- 
swering the  dictatorial  summons  of  the  Council 
Vane  added  fuel  to  the  flames  by  remarking, 
11  I  cannot  but  observe,  in  this  proceeding  with 
me,  how  exactly  they  tread  in  the  steps  of  the 


82  St.  Botolph's  Town 

late  king,  whose  design  being  to  set  the  gov- 
ernment free  from  all  restraint  of  laws,  as  to 
our  persons  and  estates,  and  to  render  the 
monarchy  absolute,  thought  he  could  employ 
no  better  means  to  effect  it,  than  by  casting 
into  obloquy  and  disgrace  all  those  who  desired 
to  preserve  the  laws  and  liberties  of  the  na- 
tion." His  letter  concludes:  "  It  is  no  small 
grief  to  be  lamented  that  the  evil  and  wretched 
principles  by  which  the  late  king  aimed  to  work 
out  his  design,  should  now  revive  and  spring 
up  under  the  hands  of  men  professing  godli- 
ness." For  this  and  the  pamphlet  which  pre- 
ceded it  Vane  was  imprisoned  in  Carisbrook 
Castle  on  the  Isle  of  Wight  and,  when  Oliver 
feared  longer  to  keep  him  in  durance,  was 
hunted  down  on  his  own  stamping-ground  and 
unlawfully  deprived  of  his  estates. 

Then,  in  the  fall  of  1658,  Oliver  went  to  meet 
a  King  whom  he  could  not  bully  and  Eichard 
Cromwell  assumed  the  Protectorate.  This  was 
more  than  even  Sir  Harry  Vane  could  stand 
with  patience.  Oliver  had  at  least  been  a  foe 
worthy  of  his  steel;  but  that  the  opportunity 
for  a  republic  should  be  set  aside  in  order  that 
this  feeble  creature  should  hold  office  was  too 
much  for  nny  man  with  high  hopes  of  England 
to  bear.     Sir  Harry  again  offered  himself  for 


Sir  Harry  Vane  83 

Parliament  and,  when  he  had  been  cheated  out 
of  two  elections  given  him  by  the  franchises 
of  the  people,  he  tried  in  a  third  district,  that 
of  Whitchurch  in  Hampshire,  and  was  returned 
in  spite  of  the  machinations  of  his  enemies. 
Then  he  made  in  Parliament  what  seems  to 
me  one  of  the  best  short  speeches  I  have  ever 
read: 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  Among  all  the  people  of  the 
universe,  I  know  none  who  have  shown  so  much 
zeal  for  the  liberty  of  their  country,  as  the 
English  at  this  time  have  done.  They  have, 
by  the  help  of  Divine  Providence,  overcome  all 
obstacles  and  have  made  themselves  free.  We 
have  driven  away  the  hereditary  tyranny  of 
the  house  of  Stuart,  at  the  expense  of  much 
blood  and  treasure,  in  hopes  of  enjoying  hered- 
itary liberty,  after  having  shaken  off  the  yoke 
of  kingship,  and  there  is  not  a  man  amongst 
us  who  could  have  imagined  that  any  person 
would  be  so  bold  as  to  dare  attempt  the  ravish- 
ing from  us  that  freedom  which  has  cost  us  so 
much  blood  and  so  much  labour. 

"  But  so  it  happens,  I  know  not  by  what  mis- 
fortune, we  are  fallen  into  the  error  of  those 
who  poisoned  the  Emperor  Titus  to  make  room 
for  Domitian,  who  made  a  way  Augustus  that 
they  might  have  Tiberius  and  changed  Clau- 


84  St.  Botolph's  Town 

dius  for  Nero.  I  am  sensible  these  examples 
are  foreign  from  my  subject  since  the  Romans 
in  those  days  were  buried  in  lewdness  and  lux- 
ury; whereas  the  people  of  England  are  now 
renowned  all  over  the  world  for  their  great 
virtue  and  discipline,  —  and  yet  suffer  an  id- 
iot without  courage,  without  sense,  nay,  without 
ambition,  to  have  dominion  in  a  country  of 
liberty. 

"  One  could  bear  a  little  with  Oliver  Crom- 
well, though  contrary  to  his  oath  of  fidelity  to 
the  Parliament,  contrary  to  his  duty  to  the 
public,  contrary  to  the  respect  he  owed  to  that 
venerable  body  from  whom  he  received  his 
authority,  he  usurped  the  government.  His 
merit  was  so  extraordinary  that  our  judgement 
and  passions  might  be  blinded  by  it.  He  made 
his  way  to  empire  by  the  most  illustrious  ac- 
tions. He  held  under  his  command  an  army 
that  had  made  him  a  conqueror  and  a  people 
that  had  made  him  their  general. 

"  But  as  for  Richard  Cromwell,  his  son,  who 
is  he?  What  are  his  titles?  We  have  seen  that 
he  has  a  sword  by  his  side,  but  did  he  ever  draw 
it?  And,  what  is  of  more  importance  in  this 
case,  is  he  fit  to  get  obedience  from  a  mighty 
nation  who  could  never  make  a  footman  obey 
him?    Yet,  we  must  recognize  this  man  as  our 


Sir  Harry  Vane  85 

king  under  the  style  of  Protector  —  a  man 
without  birth,  without  courage,  without  con- 
duct. For  my  part,  I  declare,  sir,  it  shall  never 
be  said  that  I  made  such  a  man  my  master." 

Following  this  remarkable  triumph  of  ora- 
tory Richard  Cromwell  was  forced  to  resign, 
the  famous  Long  Parliament  was  reassembled, 
and  Sir  Henry  Vane  was  appointed  one  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety,  to  whom  the  supreme 
and  entire  power  of  the  country  was  entrusted 
until  Parliament  could  make  further  arrange- 
ments. Later  he  was  made  President  of  the 
Council.  And  if  General  George  Monk  had  not 
sold  the  army  to  Prince  Charles  for  the  title 
of  a  duke  Vane's  dream  of  a  republican  Eng- 
land would  in  all  probability  have  been  real- 
ized. As  it  was,  Charles  the  Second  was 
crowned  and  England  given  over  to  the  scourge 
of  an  unbridled  tyranny. 

Of  course  Sir  Harry  Vane  was  among  the 
first  to  fall  a  victim  to  the  treachery  of  the  army 
and  of  Parliament.  He  was  imprisoned,  first 
in  his  own  castle  and  then  on  the  island  of 
Sicily,  while  the  king  waited  until  he  should 
be  strong  enough  to  claim  his  life.  Then  he 
kept  him  for  another  season  in  the  Tower.  In 
the  Declaration  of  Breda  Charles  had  pro- 
claimed amnesty  to  all  not  especially  excepted 


86  St.  Botolph's  Town 

by  Parliament  and  as  Sir  Harry  had  not  been 
one  of  his  father's  judges  and  was  a  well-known 
ppponent  of  the  action  taken  by  the  regicides, 
it  had  been  supposed  that  he  would  be  quite 
secure  from  the  vengeance  of  the  new  monarch. 
Moreover,  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  had 
been  assured  through  the  Lord  Chancellor  that, 
"  If  Vane  were  ever  convicted,  execution  as 
to  his  life  should  be  remitted."  It  was  because 
this  appeared  to  be  sufficient  that  Sir  Harry 
Vane's  name  was  excepted  from  the  Act  of  In- 
demnity and  Oblivion  which  the  Commons 
framed. 

When  a  new  Parliament  came  in,  however, 
and,  stimulated  by  desire  to  get  a  share  of  Sir 
Harry's  great  estate,  pushed  matters  vigor- 
ously against  him,  the  king  had  either  to  re- 
deem or  break  his  pledge.  Characteristically 
he  shifted  the  burden  of  decision  upon  his 
Chancellor  in  the  following  letter  which  shows, 
as  well  as  a  whole  volume  of  history  could,  the 
manner  of  man  who  now  ruled  England : 

"  Hampton  Coukt,  Saturday, 
"  Two  in  the  afternoon. 
"  The  relation  that  has  been  made  to  me  of 
Sir  Henry  Vane's  carriage  yesterday  in  the 
Hall,  is  the  occasion  of  this  letter;    which,  if 


Sir  Harry  Vane  87 

I  am  rightly  informed,  was  so  insolent  as  to 
justify  all  he  had  done,  acknowledging  no  su- 
preme power  in  England  but  a  Parliament,  and 
many  things  to  that  purpose.  You  have  had 
a  true  account  of  all  and  if  he  has  given  new 
occasion  to  be  hanged,  certainly  he  is  too  dan- 
gerous a  man  to  let  live,  if  we  can  honestly  put 
him  out  of  the  way.  Think  of  this  and  give 
me  some  account  of  it  to-morrow,  till  when  I 
have  no  more  to  say  to  you.  c.  r." 

The  end  soon  came.  Sir  Harry  was  by  this 
time  in  the  Tower  and  the  king  was  thirsting, 
as  he  very  well  knew,  for  his  blood.  When  it 
was  suggested  to  Vane  that  he  might  save  his 
life  by  making  submission  to  Charles  he  an- 
swered simply,  "  If  the  king  does  not  think 
himself  more  conserved  for  his  honour  and 
word  than  I  am  for  my  life  let  him  take  it." 
And  indeed  nothing  could  have  availed.  His 
trial  was  long  but  unfair  from  beginning  to 
end  and,  even  when  he  came  to  the  block,  look- 
ing very  handsome  in  his  black  clothes  and 
scarlet  waistcoat,  he  was  given  none  of  the 
privileges  usually  accorded  those  about  to  die. 
Pepys,  who  was  on  hand  for  the  execution  as 
for  most  other  interesting  spectacles  that  hap- 
pened during  his  lifetime,  describes,  with  every 


88  St.  Botolph's  Town 

mark  of  admiration,  the  bearing  of  the  pris- 
oner, adding  further,  loyalist  though  he  was, 
that  "  the  king  lost  more  by  that  man's  death 
than  he  will  get  again  for  a  good  while."  An- 
other loyalist  exclaimed  in  admiration,  as  he 
watched  the  dignity  of  those  last  moments, 
' '  He  dies  like  a  prince. ' '  To  which  I  can  only 
add,  after  reading  his  wonderful  prayer  for 
those  who  had  betrayed  him,  that  he  died  like 
the  Prince,  —  that  Prince  of  Peace  whose  prin- 
ciples he  had  all  his  life  advocated  and  whose 
sublime  example  he  followed  even  in  the  hour 
of  his  death. 


VI 

HOW    WINTHROP    TREATED    WITH    THE    LA    TOURS 

Scarcely  had  Winthrop  been  chosen  gov- 
ernor for  the  fourth  time  when  (June,  1643) 
there  came  to  Boston  to  entreat  help  against 
his  rival,  Charnissay  D'Aulnay,  Charles  La 
Tour,  one  of  the  lords  of  New  France  and  per- 
haps the  most  picturesque  figure  in  the  early 
history  of  this  continent.  The  manner  of  this 
powerful  Frenchman's  arrival  in  Boston  was 
most  disconcerting  to  the  Puritans.  For  he 
came  in  a  French  armed  ship  and  sailed 
straight  up  the  harbour,  past  a  fort  in  which 
there  was  not  a  single  person  to  answer  his 
military  salute!  Had  he  been  an  enemy  he 
might  easily  have  sacked  the  town. 

As  it  was,  he  made  his  debut  in  Boston  in 
a  charmingly  simple  fashion.  For  coming 
toward  his  ship  as  it  sailed  up  the  bay  was 
discerned  a  boat  containing  Mrs.  Gibbons,  the 
wife  of  Captain  Edward  Gibbons,  going  with 
her  children  to  their  farm.    One  of  the  gentle- 

89 


90  St.  Botolph's  Town 

men  on  La  Tour's  vessel  recognized  her  and 
told  La  Tour  who  she  was.  Whereupon  the 
lord  of  New  France  had  a  boat  of  his  own 
fitted  out  and  proceeded  to  follow  the  lady  to 
her  landing-place.  Mrs.  Gibbons,  not  knowing 
the  strangers,  hastened  from  them  as  fast  as 
she  could  and  put  in  at  Governor's  Island,  so 
called  because  it  was  the  summer  home  of  the 
Winthrops.  But  it  happened  that  the  governor 
and  some  of  his  family  were  on  the  island  at 
the  time,  so  La  Tour  was  able,  by  having  pur- 
sued her,  the  more  speedily  to  get  in  touch  with 
the  very  person  whom  he  had  come  to  see! 
While  he  was  telling  his  story  over  the  hos- 
pitable supper-table,  Mrs.  Gibbons  returned 
to  town  in  the  governor's  boat  and  spread  the 
news  of  the  stranger's  informal  arrival,  so  that 
when  La  Tour,  later,  took  the  governor  up  to 
Boston  in  his  own  boat,  they  were  met  by  three 
shallops  of  armed  men,  come  out  to  escort  them 
ceremoniously  into  the  town. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  the  negotia- 
tions which  went  on  between  Winthrop  and 
this  representative  of  a  foreign  state,  let  us, 
however,  digress  a  bit  and  learn  who  this  La 
Tour  was  and  why  he  had  come  to  Boston. 
To  make  the  matter  clear  one  must  go  back 
to  the  very  beginnings   of  the   settlement  of 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  91 

New  France  and  retrace  the  story  of  Cham- 
plain's  second  expedition  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
when  in  1604  he  sailed  under  De  Monts  (to 
whom  the  King  of  France  had  granted  the 
land),  in  company  with  Baron  de  Poutrincourt, 
Pontgrave  and  divers  merchants,  priests  and 
Huguenot  ministers.  This  variously  assorted 
company  on  exploration  and  colonization  bent 
settled  on  St.  Croix  Island,  in  the  mouth  of  St. 
Croix  River,  now  the  boundary  between  Maine 
and  New  Brunswick.  There  they  passed  their 
first  winter  in  America.  But  the  next  year 
they  crossed  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  founded 
Port  Royal  on  the  wooded  shore  of  Annapolis 
Basin,  in  the  very  heart  of  that  country  where 

.  .  .  the  murmuring  pines  and  the  hemlocks, 

Bearded  with  moss,  and  in  garments  green,  indistinct  in 

the  twilight, 
Stand  like  Druids  of  old,  with  voices  sad  and  prophetic, 
Stand  like  harpers  hoar,  with  beards  that  rest  on  their 

bosoms. 

It  was  a  wonderfully  peaceful  land  which 
they  found;  and  so  it  continued  to  be  —  even 
when  the  colonists  suffered  most  from  want 
and  privation  —  until  the  passions  of  ambi- 
tious men  and  the  schemings  and  counter- 
schemings  of  rival  branches  of  the  priesthood 


92  St.  Botolph's  Town 

availed  to  transform  it  into  a  scene  of  feudal- 
ists strife. 

Champlain 's  men  had  been  content  to  work 
hard  and  deny  themselves,  to  live  cleanly  and 
to  beguile  their  days  with  gardening,  verse- 
making  and  a  nonchalant  Christianization  of 
the  Indians.  Not  so  their  sons.  Poutrin- 
court's  son  cared  chiefly  for  war,  and  soon 
built  among  the  rocks  and  fogs  of  Cape  Sable 
a  small  fort  to  which  he  gave  the  name  Fort 
Lomeron.  This  fort  descended  at  his  death  to 
Charles  La  Tour,  one  of  his  adventurous  re- 
tainers, and  was  by  him  called  Fort  St.  Louis. 

La  Tour,  by  improving  to  the  utmost  every 
chance  that  came  his  way  and  by  winning  the 
alliance  of  both  English  and  French,  soon  made 
himself  a  terrifying  power  in  the  Acadian  land. 
To  his  first  fort  he  ere  long  added  another 
variously  called  to-day  Fort  La  Tour  and  Fort 
St.  Jean  —  the  latter  from  its  situation  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  in  the  centre  of  the  present 
city  of  St.  John,  N.  B. 

Strong  as  Charles  La  Tour  had  succeeded  in 
becoming,  an  even  stronger  man  was  soon  to 
arrive  from  France.  Under  Claude  de  Bazilly 
(a  knight  of  Malta,  charged  by  Louis  XIII  to 
seize  the  Acadian  possessions),  had  sailed 
D'Aulnay  Charnissay,   a  gentleman   of  birth, 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  93 

and  to  him  in  1635  there  came  by  Razilly's 
death  royal  power  in  Acadia.  D'Aulnay  made 
his  headquarters  at  Port  Royal,  and  nobody 
thought  of  disputing  his  authority,  so  clearly 
could  it  be  traced  to  the  king  —  nobody,  ex- 
cept La  Tour.  That  adventurer,  having  papers 
from  both  the  English  and  the  French,  and 
having  besides  an  indomitable  spirit  and  inex- 
haustible craft,  made  D'Aulnay 's  situation 
from  the  very  beginning  well-nigh  unbearable. 
In  position  and  qualities  the  two  rivals  were 
poles  apart.  D'Aulnay  came  of  an  old  and 
distinguished  Touraine  family,  and  he  prided 
himself  above  all  things  upon  his  character  of 
gentilhomme  francais.  He  was  a  consistent 
Catholic,  too,  while  La  Tour's  religion  —  like 
his  family  —  was  obscure.  The  rivalry,  which 
had  always  been  keen,  appears  to  have  grown 
into  positive  bitterness,  when,  five  years  after 
his  first  coming  to  Acadia,  D'Aulnay  returned 
from  a  visit  to  France,  bringing  with  him  a 
charming  wife.  The  plucky  bride  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  Seigneur  de  Courcelles,  and  was  well 
fitted  by  birth  and  breeding  to  transmute,  by 
her  gentlewoman's  touch,  the  rough  settlement 
into  an  orderly  colony.  "What  with  old  settlers 
and  new,  about  forty  families  were  now  gath- 
ered at  Port  Royal  and  on  the  river  Annapolis. 


94  St.  Botolph's  Town 

And  over  these  D'Aulnay  ruled,  "  a  kind  of 
feudal  Robinson  Crusoe." 

A  scene  for  an  artist,  as  Parkinan  points  out, 
was  the  Port  Royal  of  those  days,  with  its  fort, 
its  soldiers,  its  manor-house  of  logs,  its  semi- 
nary of  like  construction,  and  its  twelve  Ca- 
puchin friars,  with  cowled  heads,  sandaled  feet 
and  the  cord  of  St.  Francis!  The  friars  were 
supported  by  Richelieu;  their  main  business 
—  and  they  were  pretty  successful  in  it  —  was 
to  convert  the  Micmac  and  Abenaki  Indians 
into  loyal  vassals  of  France  and  earnest  sub- 
jects of  the  Church. 

But  Charles  La  Tour  was  not  so  easily  dealt 
with.  He  who  had  before  felt  himself  the  chief 
man  in  Acadia  was  now  fairly  aflame  with  jeal- 
ousy of  this  French  seigneur  who  dwelt  just 
across  the  intervening  Bay  of  Fundy,  sur- 
rounded by  loyal  retainers  and  solaced  by  a 
loving  wife.  Wives,  however,  were  certainly 
to  be  had  even  if  settlers  were  not ;  and  since 
D  'Aulnay  had  given  evidence,  by  bringing  over 
a  woman,  that  he  had  no  intention  of  abandon- 
ing his  claim,  La  Tour  resolved  that  he,  too, 
would  set  up  a  home  in  Acadia.  His  agent 
was  thereupon  instructed  to  pick  out  in  France 
a  girl  worthy  to  share  his  heart  and  fort.  Ac- 
cordingly, Marie  Jacquelin,  daughter  of  a  bar- 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  95 

ber  of  Mans,  was  selected  to  join  La  Tour  at 
Fort  St.  Jean.  She  proved  to  be  an  Amazon. 
With  passionate  vehemence  she  took  up  her 
husband's  quarrel,  and  where  D'Aulnay 's  lady 
heartened  her  lord  by  gentle  words  and  soft 
caresses,  Lady  La  Tour  threw  herself  into  the 
thick  of  the  fight  and  became  a  force  greatly 
to  be  feared  in  the  Acadian  land. 

From  this  time  on  events  march.  Goaded 
by  his  wife,  La  Tour  grew  more  and  more  con- 
tumacious, until  that  day  when  the  King  of 
France,  losing  all  patience,  ordered  D'Aulnay 
to  seize  his  rival's  forts  and  take  their  com- 
mander prisoner.  In  accordance  with  these  in- 
structions, we  find  D'Aulnay  (in  1642)  an- 
chored at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John  and  endeav- 
ouring to  arrest  the  outlaw.  Then  it  was  that 
La  Tour,  rendered  desperate,  defied  the  king 
as  well  as  his  representative,  and  —  Catholic 
though  he  claimed  to  be  —  turned  for  help  to 
the  heretics  of  Boston. 

Boston  was  in  no  position,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  help  and  La  Tour's  coming  provided  highly 
disturbing  matter  for  debate.  Though  he  was 
hospitably  received  by  Governor  Winthrop  and 
the  Reverend  John  Cotton,  many  there  were 
who  wished  him  well  out  of  the  way.  Even  his 
unimpeachable  gravity  of  demeanour  when  he 


96  St.  Botolph's  Town 

attended  church  with  Winthrop  on  Sunday 
could  not  make  him  acceptable  to  these  clear- 
sighted souls.  Still,  his  men  were  not  only 
allowed  to  come  ashore,  but  permission  was 
granted  them  to  drill  on  Boston  common,  along 
with  the  town  militia,  —  to  the  accompaniment 
of  the  ambitious  band  and  the  industrious  frog 
chorus. 

One  very  amusing  incident  is  connected  with 
the  "  land  leave  "  granted  the  La  Tour  men. 
Winthrop,  writing  the  next  year,  tells  the 
story,  not  without  some  sense  of  its  humour: 
"  There  arrived  here  a  Portugal  ship  with  salt, 
having  in  it  two  Englishmen  only.  One  of 
these  happened  to  be  drunk  and  was  carried 
to  his  lodging;  and  the  constable  (a  godly  man 
and  a  zealous  against  such  disorders)  hearing 
of  it  found  him  out,  being  upon  his  bed  asleep ; 
so  he  awaked  him  and  led  him  to  the  stocks, 
there  being  no  magistrate  at  home.  He,  being 
in  the  stocks,  one  of  La  Tour's  gentlemen  lifted 
up  the  stocks  and  let  him  out.  The  constable 
hearing  of  it,  went  to  the  Frenchman  (being 
then  gone  and  quiet),  and  would  needs  carry 
him  to  the  stocks;  the  Frenchman  offered  to 
yield  himself  to  go  to  prison,  but  the  constable, 
not  understanding  his  language,  pressed  him 
to  go  to  the  stocks;    the  Frenchman  resisted 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  97 


and  drew  his  sword;  with  that  company  came 
in  and  disarmed  him  and  carried  him  by  force 
to  the  stocks ;  but  soon  after  the  constable  took 
him  out  and  carried  him  to  prison,  and  pres- 
ently after,  took  him  forth  again  and  delivered 
him  to  La  Tour.  Much  tumult  there  was  about 
this." 

The  magistrates  looked  into  the  case  and 
decided  that  the  gentleman  must  return  to 
prison  until  the  Court  met.  Some  Frenchmen 
offered  to  go  bail  for  him,  but  since  they  were 
strangers  their  offer  was  declined.  "  Upon 
this,"  continues  Winthrop,  "  two  Englishmen, 
members  of  the  church  of  Boston,  standing  by, 
offered  to  be  his  sureties,  whereupon  he  was 
bailed  till  he  should  be  called  for,  because  La 
Tour  was  not  like  to  stay  till  the  Court.  This 
was  thought  too  much  favour  for  such  an  of- 
fence by  many  of  the  common  people,  but  by 
our  law  bail  could  not  be  denied  him ;  and  be- 
side the  constable  was  the  occasion  of  all  this 
in  transgressing  the  bounds  of  his  office,  and 
that  in  six  things:  1.  In  fetching  a  man  out 
of  his  lodging  that  was  asleep  on  his  bed  and 
that  without  any  warrant  from  the  authority. 
2.  In  not  putting  a  hook  upon  the  stocks  nor 
setting  some  to  guard  them.  .°>.  In  laving 
hands  upon  the  Frenchman  that  had  opened 


98  St.  Botolph's  Town 

the  stocks  when  he  was  gone  and  quiet,  and 
no  disturbance  then  appearing.  4.  In  carry- 
ing him  to  prison  without  warrant.  5.  In  de- 
livering him  out  of  prison  without  warrant. 
6.  In  putting  such  a  reproach  upon  a  stranger 
and  a  gentleman  when  there  was  no  need,  for 
he  knew  he  would  be  forthcoming  and  the  mag- 
istrate would  be  at  home  that  evening;  but 
such  are  the  fruits  of  ignorant  and  misguided 
zeal." 

The  clever  La  Tours  lost  no  time  in  pushing 
the  business  upon  which  they  had  come.  Show- 
ing papers  which  would  seem  to  prove  the 
doughty  Charles  a  lawful  representative  of  the 
King  of  France,  the  governor  was  asked  for 
such  aid  as  would  enable  him  to  bring  to  his 
fort  the  ship,  containing  supplies,  which  D'Aul- 
nay  would  not  permit  to  proceed  up  the  bay. 
Very  adroitly  La  Tour  then  suggested  that  he 
at  least  be  permitted  to  hire  four  vessels,  each 
fully  armed  and  equipped,  with  which  to  defend 
his  rights  in  Acadia. 

Winthrop  finally  gave  bewildered  consent  to 
this  arrangement,  and  his  action  was  approved 
by  a  majority  of  those  in  authority.  But  in  the 
ensuing  discussion  over  this  arresting  depar- 
ture, the  "  inevitable  clergy  "  joined  hotly,  and 
texts  being  the  chief  weapons  of  the  debate, 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  99 

various  Old  Testament  worthies  were  brought 
forward  to  prove  that  Massachusetts  would 
have  done  much  better  to  keep  out  of  the  fight. 
John  Endicott  stoutly  maintained  that  La  Tour 
was  not  to  be  trusted,  and  that  he  and  D'Aul- 
nay  would  much  better  have  been  left  to  fight 
it  out  by  themselves.  In  this  opinion  several 
chief  men  of  the  colony  concurred,  saying  in 
the  famous  "  Ipswich  letter  "  that  they  feared 
international  law  had  been  ill  observed,  and 
declaring  in  substance,  that  the  merits  of  the 
case  were  not  clear,  that  the  colony  was  not 
called  upon  in  charity  to  help  La  Tour  (see  2 
Chronicles  xix,  2,  and  Proverbs  xxvi,  17) ;  that 
this  quarrel  was  for  England  and  France ;  that 
endless  trouble  would  come  if  D'Aulnay  were 
not  completely  put  down,  and  that  "  he  that 
loses  his  life  in  an  unnecessary  quarrel  dies  the 
devil's  martyr." 

This  letter,  trenching  as  it  did  upon  Win- 
throp's  pride  of  office,  stung  the  governor  into 
vehement  retort.  But  he  soon  had  the  candour 
to  admit  that  he  had  been  in  fault  in  three 
things:  first  in  answering  La  Tour  too  hastily, 
next  in  not  sufficiently  consulting  the  elders, 
and  lastly  in  not  having  opened  the  discussion 
with  prayer. 

But  La  Tour  had  meanwhile  received  his 


100  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ships,  and  was  able  with  them  to  rout  D'Aul- 
nay's  three  vessels.  His  lady  alertly  followed 
up  this  advantage,  visiting  France  to  help 
strengthen  his  cause,  and  coming  back  by  way 
of  Boston.  This  visit  on  the  part  of  the  re- 
doubtable madam  seems  not  to  have  been  of 
her  planning,  however.  She  had  engaged  Cap- 
tain Bayley  to  transport  her  from  London  to 
Acadia  whither  she  was  anxious  to  bring,  as 
soon  as  might  be,  stores  and  munitions  which 
should  aid  her  husband.  But  Bayley  chose  to 
put  in  at  Boston. 

Promptly  Madam  La  Tour  sued  him  for 
damages,  alleging  that  the  six  months  con- 
sumed by  the  voyage  had  been  an  unreasonable 
length  of  time  and  that  he  had  not  taken  her 
to  Acadia  as  bargained  for.  The  jury  awarded 
her  £2,000,  for  which  Captain  Bayley 's  ship 
was  attached.  This  proved  to  be  worth  only 
£1,100,  however,  and  it  cost  the  Lady  about 
£700  to  hire  vessels  to  convey  her  and  her 
effects  to  Acadia.  The  colony,  too,  had  ulti- 
mately to  pay  the  damages  it  had  awarded  her. 
For  the  owners  of  the  ship  and  cargo  which 
Lady  La  Tour  had  attached  promptly  seized 
a  Boston  ship  in  London  to  indemnify  them- 
selves and,  when  it  became  doubtful  whether 
they  would  be  able  to  hold  her,  attached  the 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  101 


bodies  of  Stephen  Winthrop,  the  governor's 
son,  who  happened  to  be  then  in  London,  and 
of  Captain  Joseph  Weld,  who  had  been  on  the 
jury  when  the  La  Tour  damages  were  awarded. 
Sir  Harry  Vane  nobly  came  to  the  rescue  of 
the  Bostonians,  thus  winning  from  Winthrop 
the  acknowledgment  that  "  both  now  and  at 
other  times  Mr.  Vane  showed  himself  a  true 
friend  of  New  England  and  a  man  of  a  noble 
and  generous  mind." 

Meanwhile  Lady  La  Tour  had  arrived  back 
at  her  stamping-ground  and  had  offered  her 
husband  a  very  shrewd  piece  of  advice.  "  Go 
to  Boston,  declare  yourself  to  be  a  Protestant," 
she  counselled,  "  ask  for  a  minister  to  preach 
to  the  men  at  the  fort,  and  promise  that  if  the 
Bostonians  help  us  to  master  D'Aulnay  and 
conquer  Acadia,  we  will  share  our  conquests 
with  them."  This  Machiavellian  suggestion 
La  Tour  seized  with  avidity,  and  sailed  gaily 
forth. 

Scarcely  had  he  gone  when  his  lady,  falling 
one  day  into  a  transport  of  fury  at  some  un- 
pleasant turn  of  events,  so  berated  and  reviled 
the  Eecollet  friars  at  Fort  St.  Jean,  that  they 
refused  to  stay  under  her  roof,  and  set  out  for 
Port  Poyal  in  the  depth  of  winter,  taking  with 
them  eight  strong  soldiers,  who  were  too  good 


102  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Catholics  to  remain  longer  in  such  a  hotbed 
of  heresy.  At  Port  Royal  this  little  party  was 
most  warmly  received.  D'Aulnay  paid  the 
eight  soldiers  their  long  overdue  wages  and 
lodged  the  friars  with  his  own  priests.  Then 
he  plied  them  all  with  questions  and.  learning 
that  La  Tour  had  gone  to  Boston,  leaving  only 
forty-five  men  to  defend  his  wife  and  his  fort- 
ress, he  saw  Heaven's  smile  at  last,  and  leaped 
to  seize  the  golden  opportunity  opened  to  him. 
Every  man  about  Port  Royal  was  hastily 
mustered  into  action.  Then  D'Aulnay  crossed 
the  Bay  of  Fundy  with  all  his  force,  erected 
a  fort  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  and.  after 
delaying  for  a  time  in  an  attempt  to  win  over 
more  of  La  Tour's  men  (capturing  incidentally 
a  small  vessel  which  had  been  sent  from  Boston 
loaded  with  provisions  and  bearing  a  letter  to 
tell  Lady  La  Tour  that  her  husband  would  join 
her  in  a  month),  he  brought  his  cannons  into 
position,  and  made  as  if  he  would  batter  down 
the  fortress.  The  garrison  was  summoned  to 
surrender,  but  when  for  answer  they  hung  out 
a  red  flag  and  "  shouted  a  thousand  insults  and 
blasphemies,"  accompanying  the  same  with  a 
volley  of  cannon  shots  directed  by  the  intrepid 
Amazon,  D'Aulnay  could  do  nothing  but  fight 
the  thing  to  a  finish.     In  spite  of  the  gallant 


FoRT  LA  TOUR     <>R  ST.  JEAN),  ST.  .loHN".  NEW  BRUNSWICK,   PROM 
A      DRAWING    HY    LOUIS    A.    HOLMAN 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  103 

defence  of  Madame  La  Tour,  D'Aulnay 's  su- 
perior numbers  prevailed.  All  resistance  was 
overcome;  the  fort  was  pillaged,  and  all  the 
survivors  of  the  garrison,  including  Madame 
La  Tour,  were  taken  prisoners.  At  first  the 
lady  was  left  at  liberty,  but  after  she  had  been 
detected  in  an  attempt  to  communicate  with 
her  husband  by  means  of  an  Indian,  she  was 
put  into  confinement.  Then,  and  then  only,  did 
she  fall  ill.    Three  weeks  later  she  was  dead. 

D'Aulnay  had  now  robbed  his  rival  of  his 
wife  and  captured  Fort  St.  Jean,  the  best  tra- 
ding station  in  Acadia.  The  King  compli- 
mented him  highly,  and  when  he  demanded 
reparation  for  the  part  Boston  had  taken 
against  him  his  right  to  satisfaction  was  in- 
directly admitted.  Winthrop  had  learned  his 
lesson.  D'Aulnay 's  stay  as  described  in  the 
governor's  Journal  makes  interesting  reading: 

"  It  being  the  Lord's  day  [of  September, 
1646]  and  the  people  ready  to  go  to  the  assem- 
bly after  dinner,  Monsieur  Marie  and  Monsieur 
Louis,  with  Monsieur  D'Aulnay  [and]  his 
secretary  arrived  at  Boston  in  a  small  pinnace 
and  Major  Gibbons  sent  two  of  his  chief 
officers  to  meet  them  at  the  waterside  who  con- 
ducted them  to  their  lodgings  without  noise  or 
bustle.     The  public  worship  being  ended  the 


104  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Governor  repaired  home,  and  sent  Major  Gib- 
bons with  other  gentlemen  and  a  gnard  of  mus- 
keteers to  attend  them  to  the  Governor's  house, 
who  meeting  them  without  his  door  carried 
them  into  his  house,  where  they  were  enter- 
tained with  wine  and  sweetmeats,  and  after  a 
while  he  accompanied  them  to  their  lodgings 
being  the  house  of  Major  Gibbons,  where  they 
were  entertained  that  night. 

"  The  next  morning  they  repaired  to  the 
Governor,  and  delivered  him  their  commission, 
which  was  in  form  of  a  letter  directed  to 
the  Governor  and  magistrates.  .  .  .  Their  diet 
was  provided  at  the  ordinary,  where  the  Magis- 
trates used  to  diet  in  Court  times;  and  the 
Governor  accompanied  them  always  at  meals. 
Their  manner  was  to  repair  to  the  Governor's 
house  every  morning  about  eight  of  the  clock, 
who  accompanied  them  to  the  place  of  meeting; 
and  at  night  either  himself  or  some  of  the 
Commissioners,  accompanied  them  to  their 
lodgings." 

A  great  deal  of  ceremony  surely  for  a  little 
place  like  Boston!  But  then,  D'Aulnay  had 
asked  £8,000  indemnity  and  the  government 
had  to  look  as  if  it  could  pay  in  case  it  had  to. 
The  Commissioners,  though,  sturdily  denied 
"  any  guilt  "  on  their  part  maintaining  that 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  105 

they  had  only  permitted  La  Tour  to  hire  the 
vessels.  And  they  brought  counter-charges 
against  D'Aulnay.  Finally,  it  was  agreed  that 
the  matter  be  settled  amicably  and  that  Boston 
"  send  a  small  present  to  D'Aulnay  in  satis- 
faction." A  treaty  was  accordingly  signed.  In 
due  time  the  proposed  "  small  present  "  was 
sent.  It  consisted  of  a  sedan  chair  which  the 
marauding  Captain  Cromwell  had  taken  as  a 
prize  and  presented  to  "Winthrop  a  few  months 
before.  Winthrop  gave  it  to  D'Aulnay,  as  he 
frankly  says,  because  it  was  of  no  value  to  him ! 
But  the  suite  of  the  victorious  French  lord 
was  sent  off  with  all  possible  honours  just  the 
same  "  the  Governor  and  our  Commissioners 
accompanying  them  to  their  boat,  attended 
with  a  guard  of  musketeers,  and  gave  them  five 
guns  from  Boston,  three  from  Charlestown, 
and  five  from  Castle  Island;  and  we  sent  them 
aboard  a  quarter  cask  of  sack  and  some  mut- 
ton. ..."  D'Aulnay  was  evidently  satisfied 
with  the  results  of  his  visit.  For  he  had  not  in 
the  least  expected  the  large  sum  of  money  for 
which  he  had  asked.  All  that  he  wished  to 
make  clear  to  the  Puritans  was  that  they 
should  fit  out  no  more  expeditions  for  La  Tour. 
And  now,  when  he  had  made  this  point,  forced 
Fortune  to  crown  his  life-work  and  saw  abend 


106  St.  Botolph's  Town 

of  him  promise  of  a  thriving  trade  and  a  con- 
stantly growing  colony, 

"  Death  stepped  tacitly  and  took  him." 

On  the  24th  of  May,  1650,  as  he  and  his  valet 
were  canoeing  in  the  basin  of  Port  Royal,  not 
far  from  the  mouth  of  the  Annapolis,  their 
frail  craft  overturned,  and  though  they  clung 
to  it  and  got  astride  of  it,  one  at  either  end,  in 
an  endeavour  to  save  themselves,  they  could 
not.  At  the  end  of  an  hour  and  a  half  D'Aul- 
nay  was  dead,  not  from  drowning  but  from 
cold,  for  the  water  still  retained  the  chill  of 
winter.  So  Father  Ignace,  the  Superior  of  the 
Capuchins,  found  him.  With  fitting  ceremonies 
he  was  buried  in  the  chapel  of  the  fort  at  Port 
Royal  in  the  presence  of  his  soldiers,  his  ten- 
ants and  his  sorrowing  wife. 

That  poor,  poor  wife!  For  she  still  had 
Charles  La  Tour  to  deal  with,  and  with  him  her 
own  life  was  destined  to  be  linked.  That 
La  Tour  had  friends  in  France  she  soon  came 
to  know  only  too  well.  Through  false  papers, 
intrigues  and  dastardly  treachery  Port  Royal 
was  promptly  wrested  from  her,  and  she  was 
even  persuaded  to  return  to  La  Tour  Fort  St. 
Jean,  which  her  husband  had  taken  fairly  in  a 
well-fought  fight.     Beset  with  insidious  ene- 


Winthrop  and  the  La  Tours  107 

mies  and  tortured  beyond  endurance  by  fears 
for  her  eight  young  children,  the  brave  spirit 
of  this  lovely  woman  broke  with  her  heart,  and 
three  years  after  the  death  of  her  noble  hus- 
band she  married  (February  24,  1653)  the  man 
who  had  so  long  been  her  tormentor.  With 
him  she  took  up  her  abode  at  Fort  St.  Jean. 
Of  the  children  for  whose  sake  she  had  sold 
herself  the  four  boys  were  killed  in  the  wars 
of  Louis  XIV,  and  the  girls  all  became  nuns. 
So  no  single  trace  of  D'Aulnay's  blood  may 
to-day  be  found  in  the  land  for  which  he  gave 
his  life  and  wealth  out  of  the  great  love  he 
bore  France  and  the  Church. 

The  significant  lesson  of  this  whole  episode 
so  far  as  Boston  history  is  concerned  lies,  how- 
ever, in  the  fact  that  what  was,  properly  speak- 
ing, an  international  matter  took  place  wholly 
within  the  borders  of  the  town;  and  that  Mas- 
sachusetts assumed,  throughout,  the  attitude 
of  a  completely  independent  government,  deal- 
ing with  D'Aulnay  and  La  Tour  just  as  inde- 
pendently and  in  the  same  manner  as  Charles 
and  Buckingham  dealt  with  the  Huguenots  and 
the  French  monarchy.  "We  shall  do  well  to 
recall  this  incident  later  on  in  Boston's  history 
and  contrast  it  with  the  claims  made  by  Eng- 
land in  regard  to  her  attitude  of  "  protection.'' 


VII 

FBEEDOM   TO   WORSHIP   GOD 

Critics  of  the  Puritans,  taking  their  text 
from  Mrs.  Heman's  poem,  are  disposed  to 
judge  harshly,  on  the  ground  of  inconsistency, 
that  band  of  earnest  Christians,  who,  coming 
here  because  they  had  been  persecuted  in  Eng- 
land persecuted  in  their  turn  those  who  ven- 
tured upon  a  spiritual  angle  in  any  degree 
different  from  their  own.  Such  critics  are, 
however,  confusing  the  ideals  cherished  by  our 
forefathers  with  their  own  ideals  for  them. 
They  never  claimed  that  their  object  in  coming 
here  was  to  secure  for  all  men  the  boon  of 
freedom  in  religion.  On  the  contrary,  they 
said  quite  plainly  that  the  object  of  their  emi- 
gration was  to  escape  oppression  for  them- 
selves. Upon  that  they  laid  the  emphasis ;  and 
with  that  they  stopped. 

Far  from  being  inconsistent  they  adhered 
through  fire  and  water  to  their  own  self-de- 
fensive principle.    All  their  legislation,  all  the 

108 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  109 


arrangements  of  their  society  were  framed  to 
secure  this  object.  It  was  in  accordance  with 
this  that  they  reserved  to  themselves  the  right 
of  admitting  only  whom  they  pleased  as  free- 
men of  the  colony ;  and  it  was  to  this  end  that, 
a  little  more  than  a  year  after  their  arrival, 
they  "  ordered  and  agreed  that,  for  time  to 
come,  no  man  should  be  admitted  to  the  free- 
dom of  the  body  politic,  but  such  as  are  mem- 
bers of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  limits 
of  the  same."  To  them  such  an  ordinance 
seemed  the  one  and  only  way  of  forming  the 
Christian  republic  towards  which  their  hearts 
yearned,  a  community  in  which  the  laws  of 
Moses  should  constitute  the  rules  of  civil  life 
and  in  which  the  godly  clergy  should  be  the 
interpreters  of  those  rules. 

Of  course,  the  weakness  of  the  system  lay 
in  the  fact  that  the  clergy  were  only  men.  And 
being  men,  of  like  passions  with  ourselves,  they 
grew,  by  the  very  deference  they  fed  upon, 
into  creatures  insatiate  for  power.  But  piti- 
fully narrow  though  they  were,  revoltingly 
cruel  though  they  soon  came  to  be,  it  should 
nevertheless  be  borne  in  mind  that  they  were, 
in  almost  every  case,  sincere.  They  believed 
that  they  were  conserving  the  great  good  of 
Christian  amity  in  persecuting  relentlessly  all 


110  St.  Botolph's  Town 


who  differed  from  them,  —  and  so,  girding  up 
their  loins,  they  gave  still  another  turn  to  the 
screw ! 

And  now,  having  said  in  their  defence  all, 
as  I  honestly  believe,  there  is  to  be  said,  I  can 
with  a  clear  conscience,  record  their  persecu- 
tions and  paint  as  darkly  as  I  must  the  horrors 
of  that  terrible  era.  To  understand  it  all  we 
must  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that,  not  only  was 
the  number  of  clergy  among  the  emigrants  to 
Boston  and  vicinity  large,  but  being  men  of  un- 
usual gifts,  that  they  of  necessity  exercised  an 
enormous  influence  in  this  "  Christian  repub- 
lic." Moreover,  the  magistrates  themselves 
were,  in  a  large  number  of  cases  men  imbued 
with  what  we  may  call  the  ecclesiastical  feel- 
ing. When  Governor  Dudley,  for  instance, 
came  to  die,  there  were  found  in  his  pocket 
these  lines  which  showed  his  own  cast  of  mind 
to  have  been  fiercely  bigoted : 

"Let  men  of  God  in  Courts  and  Churches  watch 
O're  such  as  do  a  Toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  111  Egg  bring  forth  a  Cockatrice, 
To  poison  all  with  heresie  and  vice." 

The  "  cockatrice  "  which  most  powerfully 
agitated  Boston  was  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson, 
delicately     characterized     by     the     Reverend 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  111 

Thomas  Welde  as  4k  the  American  Jezebel." 
To  students  of  history  calmly  examining  to- 
day the  testimony  on  both  sides,  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson stands  out  however  as  a  gentlewoman  of 
spotless  life,  kind  heart,  brilliant  mind  and 
superb  courage.  That  she  had  a  good  deal  of 
that  intellectual  vanity  possessed  by  most 
clever  women  is  also  plain.  And  she  had  be- 
sides—  and  it  was  this  which  more  than  any- 
thing else  occasioned  her  banishment  —  a 
tongue  which  could  and  did  lash  furiously 
those  whom  she  disliked.  Comparing  with  her 
own  clergyman  —  the  Reverend  John  Cotton 
—  the  host  of  other  clergy  then  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony,  she  found  between  them  a 
great  gulf  fixed;  and  she  said  this  quite  dis- 
tinctly to  the  groups  of  people  who  used  to 
come  to  her  house  opposite  the  place  where 
the  Old  South  Church  now  stands,  to  hear  her 
discuss  Mr.  Cotton's  sermons. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  came  to  the  colony  (in  the 
autumn  of  1634)  primed  for  religious  discus- 
sion. Her  father  had  been  Francis  Marbury, 
a  minister,  first  in  Lincolnshire  and  afterwards 
in  London,  and  in  the  scholarly  and  theological 
atmosphere  of  his  house  she  had,  for  years, 
been  accepted  as  the  intellectual  equal  of  his 
ministerial  friends.     Theology,  indeed,  was  as 


112  St.  Botolph's  Town 

the  breath  of  life  to  her  and  she  hinted  in  no 
uncertain  way  to  some  Puritan  ministers  who 
were  on  the  vessel  during  her  journey  to  New 
England  that  they  might  expect  to  hear  more 
from  her  in  the  new  world.  For  she  regarded 
herself  as  one  with  a  mission. 

William  Hutchinson,  the  husband  of  this 
lady,  was  the  type  of  man  who  is  always  mar- 
ried by  strong-minded  magnetic  women.  Win- 
throp  has  nothing  but  words  of  contempt  for 
him,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  a  sincere 
attachment  existed  between  the  married  pair 
and  that  Hutchinson  possessed  sterling  char- 
acter and  solid  worth  as  well  as  a  comfortable 
estate.  In  their  Lincolnshire  home  the  two  had 
been  parishioners  of  the  Reverend  John  Cot- 
ton and  regular  attendants  at  St.  Botolph's 
Church.  When  Cotton  fled  to  escape  the  tyr- 
anny of  the  bishops,  the  Hutchinsons  decided 
to  follow,  and  when  the  Reverend  John  Wheel- 
wright, who  had  married  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
daughter,  began  to  be  persecuted  in  his  turn 
their  departure  was  naturally  hastened. 

Promptly  upon  their  arrival  in  Boston  both 
Hutchinsons  made  their  application  to  be  re- 
ceived as  members  of  the  church.  This  step 
was  indispensable  to  admit  the  pair  into  Chris- 
tian fellowship  and  to  allow  Mr.  Hutchinson 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  113 

the  privilege  of  engaging  in  business  and 
otherwise  exercising  the  rights  of  a  citizen. 
He  came  through  the  ordeal  easily  enough  but, 
in  consequence  of  the  reports  already  spread 
concerning  her  extravagant  opinions,  his  wife 
was  subjected  to  a  most  searching  examina- 
tion. Finally,  however,  she,  too,  was  pro- 
nounced a  "  member  in  good  standing  "  of  the 
congregation  over  which  her  beloved  John 
Cotton  served  as  associate  pastor.  And  now 
she  was  ready  to  enter  upon  the  career  which 
soon  divided  Boston  into  two  violently  opposed 
factions  and  which  ended  by  the  withdrawal  to 
England  of  the  brilliant  young  Governor  Vane 
and  by  the  banishment  from  the  colony  of  her 
with  whom  he  had  sympathized. 

Even  so  far  back  as  1635  Boston  seems  to 
have  been  capable  of  great  enthusiasm  over  a 
woman  who  could  persuasively  present  "  some 
new  thing."  The  doctrine  advanced  by  this 
woman  was  certainly  an  arresting  one  for  that 
day.  For,  cleverly  interwoven  with  what  was 
ostensibly  only  a  recapitulation  of  the  sermon 
preached  the  Sunday  before,  ran  constantly  the 
astonishing  proclamation  that  there  are  in  this 
world  certain  "  elect  "  who  may  or  may  not 
be  ordained  clergy  and  that  to  them  are  given 
direct  revelations  of  the  will  of  God.    Now  the 


114  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ministers  of  New  England  were  formalists  to 
the  core  and  the  society  which  they  dominated 
was  organized  upon  the  basis  that  if  a  man  had 
a  sad  countenance,  wore  sombre  garb,  lived  an 
austere  life,  quoted  the  Bible  freely,  attended 
worship  regularly  and  took  off  his  hat  to  the 
clergy  he  was  a  good  man.  Such  a  man  alone 
might  be  a  citizen.  To  admit,  therefore,  that, 
in  place  of  these  convenient  signs  of  grace, — 
"  works  "  as  they  were  called,  —  one  must  rest 
salvation  upon  the  intimate  and  so  necessarily 
elusive  relation  between  man  and  his  God  was 
to  preach  political  as  well  as  spiritual  revolu- 
tion. The  logical  result  of  accepting  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  doctrines  would  have  meant  noth- 
ing less  than  the  annihilation  of  those  conve- 
nient earmarks  by  which  the  "  good  "  and  the 
' '  bad  ' '  in  the  community  could  be  readily  dis- 
tinguished, —  the  ' '  good  ' '  marked  for  civic 
advancement  and  the  "  bad  "  for  the  stocks 
and  banishment. 

At  first  the  far-reaching  import  of  the  lady's 
views  seems  not  to  have  struck  her  hearers. 
All  the  leading  and  influential  people  of  the 
town  flocked  to  her  "  parlour  talks  "  and,  for 
a  time,  she  was  that  very  remarkable  thing  — 
a  prophet  honoured  in  her  own  community. 
For  the  matter  of  her  "  lectures  "  was  always 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  115 

pithy  and  bright,  the  leader's  wit  always  ready 
and  ' '  everybody  was  there, ' '  —  which  counted 
then  for  righteousness  just  as  it  does  now. 
Hawthorne's  genius  has  conjured  up  for  us 
the  scene  at  one  of  these  Hutchinson  gather- 
ings so  that  we,  too,  may  attend  and  be  among 
the  ' '  crowd  of  hooded  women  and  men  in  stee- 
ple hats  and  close-cropped  hair  .  .  .  assembled 
at  the  door  and  open  windows  of  a  house  newly- 
built.  An  earnest  expression  glows  in  every 
face  .  .  .  and  some  pressed  inward  as  if  the 
bread  of  life  were  to  be  dealt  forth,  and  they 
feared  to  lose  their  share." 

Unfortunately  Mrs.  Hutchinson  found  the 
transition  between  the  abstract  and  the  con- 
crete as  easy  as  every  other  descensus  Averni. 
From  preaching  against  a  doctrine  of 
"  works  "  she  soon  dropped  into  sly  digs  at 
the  pastors  who  defended  this  belief.  "  A 
company  of  legall  professors,"  quoth  she,  "  lie 
poring  on  the  law  which  Christ  hath  abol- 
ished." No  wonder  it  began  to  be  noised 
abroad  that  the  seer  was  casting  "  reproach 
upon  the  ministers,  .  .  .  saying  that  none  of 
them  did  preach  the  covenant  of  free  grace 
but  Master  Cotton,  and  that  they  have  not  the 
seale  of  the  Spirit  and  so  were  not  able  min- 
isters of  the  New  Testament." 


116  St.  Botolph's  Town 

It  was,  however,  in  Cotton's  house  and  not 
in  her  own  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  made  the 
fatal  admission  for  which  she  had  afterward 
to  pay  so  dear.  The  elders  had  come  to  Bos- 
ton in  a  body  to  see  how  far  Cotton  "  stood 
for  "  the  things  his  gifted  parishioner  was 
preaching  and,  in  the  hope  of  clearing  the 
whole  matter  up,  the  clergyman  had  suggested 
a  friendly  conference  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson  at 
his  house.  The  interview  took  place,  the  lad}r 
cleverly  parrying  all  attempts  to  make  her  say 
indiscreet  things.  But  finally,  the  Reverend 
Hugh  Peters  having  besought  her  to  deal 
frankly  and  openly  with  them,  she  admitted 
that  she  saw  a  wide  difference  between  Mr. 
Cotton's  ministry  and  theirs  and  that  it  was 
because  they  had  not  the  seal  of  the  Spirit  that 
this  difference  arose.  If  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had 
not  thought  herself  in  confidential  intercourse 
with  those  who  were  men  of  honour  as  well  as 
clergymen,  she  would  never  have  put  the  thing 
thus  bluntly.  But  the  event  proved  that  her 
confession  was  treasured  up  to  be  used  against 
her,  —  and  that  there  were  many  in  the  colony 
who  chafed  as  she  did,  under  the  power  of 
those  preaching  this  "  covenant  of  works." 
For  promptly  the  liberals,  whose  mouthpiece 
she  had  unconsciously  become,  blossomed  out 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  117 

into  a  sturdy  political  party  led  by  the  enthusi- 
astic Vane.  The  part  which  he  played  in  the 
controversy  has  already  been  touched  upon  in 
the  previous  chapter  and  the  brave  way  in 
which  he  fought  against  the  decree  which 
would  banish  the  incoming  friends  of  Wheel- 
wright there  described. 

But  it  all  availed  nothing.  The  theocracy 
had  been  attacked  and  the  clergy  sprang  like 
one  man  to  its  defence.  Even  Cotton,  after  a 
little,  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  his  order 
as  against  the  woman  who  lauded  him  above 
his  brethren.  The  "  trial,"  in  the  course  of 
which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  condemned,  is  one 
of  the  ghastliest  things  in  the  history  of  the 
colony.  The  prisoner,  who  was  about  to  be- 
come a  mother,  was  made  to  stand  until  she 
was  exhausted,  the  while  those  in  whom  she 
had  confided  as  friends  plied  her  with  end- 
less questions  about  her  theological  beliefs. 
Through  two  long  weary  days  of  hunger  and 
cold  she  defended  herself  as  well  as  she  could 
before  these  "  men  of  God,"  but  her  able 
words  availed  nothing;  she  had  "  disparaged 
the  ministers  "  and  they  were  resolved  to  be 
revenged.  Though  Coddington  pointed  out 
that  "  no  law  of  God  or  man  "  had  been  broken 
by  the  woman  before  them,  she  was  none  the 


118  St.  Botolph's  Town 

less  banished  "  as  unfit  for  our  society."  So 
there  was  driven  out  of  the  city  she  had  adopted 
the  most  remarkable  intellect  Boston  has  ever 
made  historic  by  misunderstanding. 

Roger  Williams  was  another  great  and  good 
man  of  whom  the  city  founded  by  Winthrop 
soon  proved  itself  unworthy.  Just  here  seems 
as  good  a  place  as  any  to  attempt  some  ex- 
planation of  the  change  that  had  come  about 
in  Winthrop 's  character.  His  letters  to  his 
wife  show  him  to  have  been  tender  and  gentle, 
but  he  was  certainly  relentless  in  his  attitude 
towards  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  —  though  all  the 
time  more  than  half  persuaded  that  what  she 
said  was  true.  The  fact  is  that  Winthrop 's  very 
amiability  made  him  subject  to  men  of  inflexi- 
ble will.  His  dream  had  been  to  create  on 
earth  a  commonwealth  of  saints  whose  joy 
should  be  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  God.  But  in 
practice  he  had  to  deal  with  the  strongest  of 
human  passions  and  become  himself  intolerant 
for  the  sake  of  leading  an  intolerant  party. 
The  exigencies  of  life  in  America  seem  to  have 
made  him  more  and  more  narrow  as  the  years 
went  by,  but  he  appears  to  have  repented,  at 
the  last,  of  his  tendency  towards  intolerance; 
for,  being  requested  on  his  death-bed  to  sign 
an  order  for  the  banishment  of  some  person 


Roger  Williams 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  119 

for  heterodoxy,  he  waved  the  paper  away,  say- 
ing, "  I  have  done  too  much  of  that  work  al- 
ready. ' ' 

Williams,  though,  was  one  whom  he  perse- 
cuted with  a  will.  He  had  been  glad  to  have 
him  come  to  Boston  and  he  recorded  his  ar- 
rival —  in  the  Journal  of  February,  1631  —  as 
that  of  "  a  godly  minister."  But  he  did  not 
then  know  what  startling  doctrines  the  new 
arrival  was  to  set  forth  or  how  iconoclastic  to 
the  state  would  prove  this  clergyman's  earnest 
conviction  that,  in  all  matters  of  religious  be- 
lief and  worship,  man  was  responsible  to  God 
alone.  Scarcely  had  Williams  set  foot  in  Bos- 
ton when  tilings  began  to  happen.  In  the  first 
place,  he  was  thoroughly  convinced  that  the 
Puritans  had  done  wrong  in  holding  commu- 
nion with  Church  of  England  folk,  whose  power 
and  resources  were  constantly  employed  in 
crushing  the  spirit  of  true  piety.  So  he  re- 
fused to  join  with  the  church  at  Boston  until 
its  congregation  had  declared  repentance  for 
having  had  communion  with  the  churches  in 
England. 

His  chief  offence  against  the  state,  however, 
was  in  immediately  promulgating  the  principle 
for  which  he  all  his  life  contended,  i.  e.  that  the 
magistrates  had  no  right  whatever  to  impose 


120  St.  Botolph's  Town 

civil  penalties  upon  those  who  had  broken  only 
church  rules.  From  the  point  of  view  of  Bos- 
tonians  of  that  day  any  man  holding  this  opin- 
ion was  by  that  very  fact  unfitted  for  the  office 
of  a  minister  among  them.  Consequently,  the 
magistrates  opposed  with  all  the  authority  at 
their  command  the  settling  of  Williams  in  the 
Salem  pulpit  to  which  he  had  now  been  called. 
His  history  from  this  time  on  does  not  prop- 
erly belong  to  a  book  about  Boston;  but  it  is 
worth  noting  that  he  was  persecuted  for  being, 
among  other  things,  a  believer  in  adult  bap- 
tism and  that  against  the  Anabaptists,  as  they 
were  called,  were  directed  some  of  the  most 
cruel  persecutions  ever  waged  in  the  Saint  Bo- 
tolph's Town  of  New  England. 

One  can  scarcely  believe  the  records  as  one 
follows  the  story  of  the  way  President  Dun- 
ster  of  Harvard  College  was  treated  for  the 
crime  of  believing  in  adult  baptism.  Because 
he  would  not  baptize  infants  he  was  deprived 
of  his  office  (in  October,  1654),  and  when  he 
asked  leave  to  stay  for  a  few  months  in  the 
house  he  had  built,  on  the  ground  that 

"  1st.  The  time  of  the  year  is  unseasonable, 
being  now  very  near  the  shortest  day  and  the 
depth  of  winter. 

"  2nd.  The  place  into  which  I  go  is  unknown 


- 
5      2; 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  121 

to  me  and  my  family,  and  the  ways  and  means 
of  subsistence.  .  .  . 

"  3d.  The  place  from  which  I  go  hath  fuel 
and  all  provisions  for  man  and  beast  laid  in  for 
the  winter.  .  .  .  The  house  I  have  builded  upon 
very  damageful  conditions  to  myself,  out  of 
love  for  the  college,  taking  country  pay  in  lieu 
of  bills  of  exchange  on  England,  or  the  house 
would  not  have  been  built.  .  .  . 

"  4th.  The  persons,  all  beside  myself,  are 
women  and  children,  on  whom  little  help,  now 
their  minds  lie  under  the  actual  stroke  of 
affliction  and  grief.  My  wife  is  sick  and  my 
youngest  child  extremely  so  and  hath  been  for 
months,  so  that  we  dare  not  carry  him  out  of 
doors,  yet  much  worse  now  than  before.  ..." 

Still  slight  heed  was  paid  to  him.  For  in 
answer  to  these  pathetic  demands  Dunster  was 
reprieved  only  until  March  and  then,  with  what 
was  due  him  still  unpaid,  he  was  driven  forth, 
a  broken  man,  to  die  in  poverty  and  neglect. 
Clearly  Massachusetts  was  not  a  comfortable 
place  for  the  Baptists.  You  see  the  eminent 
John  Cotton  had  declared  that  the  rejection 
of  infant  baptism  would  overthrow  the  church ; 
that  this  was  a  capital  crime  and  that  there- 
fore, those  opposing  this  tenet  were  "  foul 
murtherers!  "    The  offence  was  plainly  enough 


122  St.  Botolph's  Town 

admitted  to  be  against  the  clergy  rather  than 
against  God.  When  John  Wilson  —  of  whom 
in  his  venerable  old  age  Hawthorne  has  given 
us  a  pleasing  portrait  in  "  The  Scarlet  Let- 
ter ' '  —  was  in  his  last  sickness  he  was  asked 
to  declare  what  he  thought  to  be  the  worst  sins 
of  the  country.  His  reply  was  that  people 
sinned  very  deeply  in  his  estimation  when  they 
rebelled  against  the  power  of  the  clergy. 

Upon  the  Quakers,  who  absolutely  refused 
to  conform,  and  who  promulgated  the  doctrine 
that  the  Deity  communicated  directly  with  men, 
were  naturally  visited  the  worst  of  all  the  re- 
ligious persecutions.  The  first  Quakers  who 
came  to  Boston  were  women,  Mary  Fisher  and 
Ann  Austin,  the  former  being  a  person  whose 
previous  experience  enabled  her  to  compare 
unfavourably  the  manners  of  New  England 
Christians  with  those  of  Turkish  Mahometans! 
For,  some  time  before  setting  out  for  Boston, 
Mary  Fisher  had  made  a  romantic  pilgrimage 
to  Constantinople  for  the  purpose  of  warning 
the  Turks  to  "  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come." 
This  was  at  a  time  when  the  Grand  Vizier  was 
encamped  with  his  army  near  Adrianople,  to 
whom  this  astonishing  person  having  jour- 
neyed "  600  miles  without  any  abuse  or  in- 
jury "  had  herself  announced  as   "  an  Eng- 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  123 

lishwoman  bearing  a  message  from  the  Great 
God  to  the  Great  Turk."  She  was  promptly 
given  an  audience  and  treated  with  great  re- 
spect, an  escort  being  even  offered  to  her  when 
the  time  came  for  her  to  depart. 

As  for  her  treatment  in  Boston,  let  us  read 
Sewel:  "  It  was  in  the  month  called  July,  of 
this  present  year  (1656)  when  Mary  Fisher 
and  Ann  Austin  arrived  in  the  road  before 
Boston,  before  ever  a  law  was  made  there 
against  the  Quakers;  and  yet  they  were  very 
ill-treated;  for  before  they  came  ashore  the 
deputy  governor,  Richard  Bellingham  (the 
governor  himself  being  out  of  town),  sent  of- 
ficers aboard,  who  searched  their  trunks  and 
chests  and  took  away  the  books  they  found 
there,  which  were  about  one  hundred  and  car- 
ried them  ashore,  after  having  commanded 
the  women  to  be  kept  prisoners  aboard;  and 
the  said  books  were,  by  an  order  of  the  council, 
burnt  in  the  market-place  by  the  hangman.  .  .  . 
And  then  they  were  shut  up  close  prisoners 
and  the  command  given  that  none  should  come 
to  them  without  leave;  a  fine  of  five  pounds 
being  laid  upon  any  that  should  otherwise  come 
at  or  speak  with  them,  tho'  but  at  the  window. 
Their  pens,  ink  and  paper  were  taken  from 
them  and  they  not  suffered  to  have  any  candle- 


124  St.  Botolph's  Town 

light  in  the  night  season;  nay,  what  is  more, 
they  were  stript  naked  under  pretence  to  know 
whether  they  were  witches,  tho'  in  searching, 
no  token  was  found  upon  them  but  of  inno- 
cence. And  in  this  search  they  were  so  bar- 
barously misused  that  modesty  forbids  to  men- 
tion it.  And  that  none  might  have  communi- 
cation with  them  a  board  was  nailed  up  before 
the  window  of  the  jail. 

"  And  seeing  they  were  not  provided  with 
victuals,  Nicholas  Upshal,  one  who  had  lived 
long  in  Boston  and  was  a  member  of  the  church 
there,  was  so  concerned  about  it  (liberty  being 
denied  to  send  them  provision)  that  he  pur- 
chas'd  it  of  the  jailor  at  the  rate  of  five  shil- 
lings a  week  lest  they  should  have  starved. 
And  after  having  been  about  five  weeks  pris- 
oners, William  Chichester,  master  of  a  vessel, 
was  bound  in  one  hundred  pound  bond  to  carry 
them  back,  and  not  suffer  any  to  speak  with 
them,  after  they  were  out  on  board;  and  the 
jailor  kept  their  beds  and  their  Bible,  for  his 
fees." 

The  lack  of  laws  touching  the  Quakers  was 
now  at  once  supplied.  Those  who  brought  in 
members  of  this  sect  were  fined  and  those  who 
entertained  them  deprived  of  one  or  both  ears. 
In  1656  an  act  was  passed  by  which  it  cost 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  125 

five  shillings  to  attend  a  Quaker  meeting  and 
five  pounds  to  speak  at  one.  In  October  of  the 
same  year  the  penalty  of  death  was  decreed 
against  all  Quakers  who  should  return  to  the 
colony  after  they  had  been  banished.  When 
Nicholas  Upshall,  the  kindly  innkeeper 1  who 
had  befriended  Mary  Fisher  and  her  comrade, 
protested  against  such  legislation  he  was  fined 
and  finally  banished.  Then,  to  provide  a  fillip 
to  zeal,  constables  who  failed  vigorously  to 
break  up  Quaker  meetings  were  themselves 
fined  and  imprisoned,  a  share  of  the  fine  im- 
posed being  given  to  the  informer.  The  object 
of  this  last-named  legislation  was  to  sustain 
the  atrocious  custom  of  "  flogging  through 
three  towns,"  a  privilege  established  by  the 
Vagabond  Act,  so  called,  of  May,  1661,  in  which 
it  was  provided  that  any  foreign  Quaker  or 
any  native,  upon  a  second  conviction,  might 
be  ordered  to  receive  an  unlimited  number  of 
stripes,  the  whip  for  such  service  being  a  two- 
handled  implement,  armed  with  lashes  made 
of  twisted  and  knotted  cord  or  catgut.  The 
last  Quaker  known  to  have  been  whipped  in 
Boston  was  Margaret  Brewster,  whose  offence 
Samuel  Sewall  has  chronicled  in  the  following 
paragraph:     "July    8,    1677,    New    Meeting 

»See  "Among  Old  New  England  Inns  "• 


126  St.  Botolph's  Town 

House  Mane:  In  sermon  time  there  came  in 
a  female  Quaker,  in  a  canvas  frock,  her  hair 
disshevelled  and  loose  like  a  Periwigg,  her  face 
as  black  as  ink,  led  by  two  other  Quakers  and 
two  others  following.  It  occasioned  the  great- 
est and  most  amazing  uproar  that  I  ever  saw. 
Isaiah  i.  12,  14."  Whittier  has  put  the  scene 
into  verse  for  us  and  made  us  poignantly  to 
feel  its  horror : 

"  Save  the  mournful  sackcloth  about  her  wound, 
Unclothed  as  the  primal  mother, 
With  limbs  that  trembled  and  eyes  that  blazed 
With  a  fire  she  dared  not  smother.  .  .  . 

«  And  the  minister  paused  in  his  sermon's  midst 
And  the  people  held  their  breath, 
For  these  were  the  words  the  maiden  said 
Through  lips  as  pale  as  death  :  .  .   . 

"  Repent !    repent !   ere  the  Lord  shall  speak 
In  thunder  and  breaking  seals  ! 
Let  all  souls  worship  him  in  the  way 
His  light  within  reveals. 

«  She  shook  the  dust  from  her  naked  feet 
And  her  sackcloth  closer  drew, 
And  into  the  porch  of  the  awe-hushed  church 
She  passed  like  a  ghost  from  view.-' 

The  meeting-house  which  provided  the  back- 
ground for  this  very  dramatic  scene  was  the 
predecessor  on  the  same  site  of  the  present  Old 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  127 

South  Church.1  Thither  Margaret  Brewster 
had  travelled  a  long  distance  for  the  express 
purpose  of  protesting  against  further  persecu- 
tions of  her  sect.  At  her  trial,  she  said  some 
brave  words  that  effectually  stirred  —  after  an 
interval  —  the  consciences  of  her  persecutors. 
John  Leverett  was  then  chief  magistrate  and 
to  him  she  appealed  thus:  "  Governour,  I  de- 
sire thee  to  hear  me  a  little  for  I  have  some- 
thing to  say  in  behalf  of  my  friends  in  this 
place:  ...  Oh  governour  I  cannot  but  press 
thee  again  and  again,  to  put  an  end  to  these 
cruel  laws  that  you  have  made  to  fetch  my 
friends  from  their  peaceable  meetings,  and 
keep  them  three  days  in  the  house  of  correc- 
tion, and  then  whip  them  for  worshipping  the 
true  and  living  God :  Governour,  let  me  en- 
treat thee  to  put  an  end  to  these  laws,  for  the 
desire  of  my  soul  is  that  you  may  act  for  God, 
and  then  would  you  prosper,  but  if  you  act 
against  the  Lord  and  his  blessed  truth,  you 
will  assuredly  come  to  nothing,  the  mouth  of 
the  Lord  hath  spoken  it.  .  .  ." 

"  Margaret  Brewster,"  came  the  stern  re- 
ply, "  you  are  to  have  your  clothes  stript  off 
to  the  middle,  and  to  be  tied  to  a  cart's  tail 
at  the  South  Meeting  House,  and  to  be  drawn 

1  See  "  Romances  of  Old  New  England  Churches." 


128  St.  Botolph's  Town 

through  the  town,  and  to  receive  twenty  stripes 
upon  your  naked  body." 

But  though  Margaret  Brewster  suffered  last 
she  did  not  suffer  most.  Mary  Dyer  paid  the 
extreme  penalty  in  1660  because  she  insisted  on 
coming  back  to  Boston  after  she  had  been  re- 
prieved from  death  and  banished.  In  no  case 
better  than  here  may  we  see  illustrated  the 
lengths  to  which  religious  enthusiasm  will 
carry  the  person  possessed  by  it.  For  with 
William  Robinson  and  Marniaduke  Stevenson 
she  had  been  condemned  to  hang  on  the  Com- 
mon, but  ' '  after  she  was  upon  the  ladder  with 
her  arms  and  legs  tied  and  the  rope  about  her 
neck  she  was  spared  at  the  earnest  solicitation 
of  her  son  and  sent  out  of  the  colony."  But, 
because  she  thought  she  must  needs  die  for 
the  triumph  of  her  cause  she  came  back  a  year 
later  to  be  executed. 

Josiah  Southwick,  eldest  son  of  Lawrence 
and  Cassandra  Southwick,  was  another  who 
"  appeared  manfully  at  Boston  in  the  face  of 
his  persecutors  "  after  he  had  been  shipped  to 
England.  As  punishment,  he  was  "  sentenced 
to  be  whipt  at  a  cart's  tail,  ten  stripes  in  Bos- 
ton, the  same  in  Roxbury  and  the  same  in  Ded- 
ham."  The  peculiar  atrocity  of  flogging  from 
town  to  town  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  victim's 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  129 

wounds  became  cold  beween  the  times  of  pun- 
ishment, and  in  winter  often  froze,  the  result- 
ing torture  being  intolerably  agonizing. 

The  case  of  the  Southwicks  is  particularly 
interesting  as  an  extreme  example  of  the  far- 
reaching  ferocity  of  persecution  as  pursued 
by  Endicott.  Whittier  in  his  poem,  "  Cassan- 
dra Southwick,"  has  given  us  the  colour  of  this 
event  but,  for  poetic  purposes,  has  made  the 
woman  young.  In  point  of  fact,  however,  Law- 
rence and  Cassandra  Southwick  were  an  aged 
couple,  members  of  the  Salem  church.  Be- 
sides the  son  Josiah,  already  referred  to,  they 
had  a  younger  boy  and  girl  named  Daniel  and 
Provided.  The  father  and  mother  were  first 
arrested  in  1657  for  harbouring  two  Quakers, 
and  although  her  husband  was  soon  released 
Cassandra  was  imprisoned  for  seven  weeks 
and  fined  forty  shillings  because  there  was 
found  on  her  person  a  Quaker  tract.  Later, 
the  three  elder  Southwicks  were  again  arrested 
and  sent  to  Boston  to  serve  as  an  example. 
Here,  in  the  February  of  1657  they  were 
whipped  without  form  of  trial,  imprisoned 
eleven  days  and  their  cattle  seized  and  sold 
to  pay  a  fine  of  £4  13  s.  for  six  weeks'  absence 
from  worship  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  letter 
which  they  sent  from  their  prison  in  Boston 


130  St.  Botolph's  Town 

to  Endicott  and  the  others  at  Salem  is  worthy 
of  being  reproduced  in  full  because  it  breathes 
the  very  spirit  of  that  peace  for  which  the 
Quakers  ideally  stood. 

"  This  to  the  Magistrates  at  Court  in  Salem. 

"  Friends, 

"  Whereas  it  was  your  pleasure  to  commit 
us,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  to  the  house 
of  correction  in  Boston,  altho'  the  Lord,  the 
righteous  Judge  of  heaven  and  earth,  is  our 
witness,  that  we  had  done  nothing  worthy  of 
stripes  or  of  bonds;  and  we  being  committed 
by  your  court  to  be  dealt  withal  as  the  law 
provides  for  foreign  Quakers,  as  ye  please  to 
term  us ;  and  having  some  of  us  suffered  your 
law  and  pleasures,  now  that  which  we  do  ex- 
pect is,  that  whereas  we  have  suffered  your 
law,  so  now  to  be  set  free  by  the  same  law,  as 
your  manner  is  with  strangers,  and  not  to  put 
us  in  upon  the  account  of  one  law,  and  execute 
another  law  upon  us,  of  which  according  to 
your  own  manner,  we  were  never  convicted  as 
the  law  expresses.  If  you  had  sent  us  upon 
the  account  of  your  new  law,  we  should  have 
expected  the  jaylor's  order  to  have  been  on 
that  account,  which  that  it  was  not,  appears 
by  the  warrant  which  we  have,  and  the  punish- 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  131 


ment  which  we  bare,  as  four  of  us  were 
whipp'd,  among  whom  was  one  who  had  for- 
merly been  whipp'd  so  now  also  according  to 
your  former  law. 

1 '  Friends,  let  it  not  be  a  small  thing  in  your 
eyes,  the  exposing  as  much  as  in  you  lies,  our 
families  to  ruine.  It's  not  unknown  to  you 
the  season  and  the  time  of  year  for  those  who 
live  of  husbandry,  and  what  their  cattle  and 
families  may  be  exposed  unto;  and  also  such 
as  live  on  trade;  we  know  if  the  spirit  of 
Christ  did  dwell  and  rule  in  you  these  things 
would  take  impression  on  your  spirits.  What 
our  lives  and  conversation  have  been  in  that 
place  is  well  known;  and  what  we  now  suffer 
for  is  much  of  false  reports,  and  ungrounded 
jealousies  of  heresie  and  sedition.  These 
things  lie  upon  us  to  lay  before  you.  And,  for 
our  parts,  we  have  true  peace  and  rest  in  the 
Lord  in  all  our  sufferings,  and  are  made  will- 
ing in  the  power  and  strength  of  God,  freely 
to  offer  up  our  lives  in  this  cause  of  God  for 
which  we  suffer:  Yea  and  we  do  find  (through 
grace)  the  enlargements  of  God  in  our  impris- 
oned state,  to  whom  alone  we  commit  ourselves 
and  families,  for  the  disposing  of  us  according 
to  his  infinite  wisdom  and  pleasure,  in  whose 
love  is  our  rest  and  life. 


132  St.  Botolph's  Town 

"  From  the  House  of  Bondage  in  Boston 
wherein  we  are  made  captives  by  the  wills  of 
men,  although  made  free  by  the  Son,  John  8, 
36.  In  which  we  quietly  rest,  this  16th  of  the 
5th  month,  1658. 

"  Lawkence 

"  Cassandra  ^Southwick, 

"  Josiah 

11  Samuel  Shattock, 

"  Joshua  Buffum." 

When  Lawrence  and  Cassandra  Southwick 
were  rearrested  after  banishment  for  not  hav- 
ing gone  away  promptly,  the  old  people  pite- 
ously  pleaded  "  that  they  had  no  otherwhere 
to  go."  But  they  were  none  the  less  com- 
manded to  get  out  quickly  under  pain  of  death. 
They  went  to  Shelter  Island,  where  they  died 
within  a  few  days  of  each  other  as  a  result  of 
flogging  and  starvation.  And,  inconceivable  as 
it  seems,  the  sale  as  slaves  of  the  younger  chil- 
dren, Daniel  and  Provided,  was  actually  au- 
thorized by  law  to  satisfy  a  debt  accumulated 
from  fines  for  their  non-attendance  at  church! 
Thus  were  free-born  English  subjects  dealt 
with  for  cherishing  a  faith  subversive  of  a 
theocracy. 

In  all  honesty,  however,  it  should  be  said 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  133 

that  not  all  the  Quakers,  by  any  means,  were 
as  mild  and  inoffensive  as  the  Southwicks. 
Even  the  gentle-spirited  Roger  Williams  was 
at  one  time  so  sorely  tried  in  patience  by  them 
that  he  allowed  himself  to  write:  "  They  are 
insufferably  proud  and  contemptuous.  I  have, 
therefore,  publicly  declared  myself  that  a  due 
and  moderate  restraint  and  punishment  of 
these  incivilities,  though  pretending  conscience, 
is  so  far  from  persecution,  properly  so  called, 
that  it  is  a  duty  and  command  of  God  unto  all 
mankind,  first  in  Families,  and  thence  unto  all 
mankind  Societies." 

What  did  they  do?  Everything  which  they 
thought  might  tend  to  batter  down  the  intol- 
erant spirit  of  Puritanism.  A  favourite 
method  of  protest  was  for  Quaker  women  to 
break  bottles  over  the  head  of  a  preacher  "  as 
a  sign  of  his  emptiness."  John  Norton  was 
more  than  once  thus  affronted  while  engaged 
in  the  solemn  delivery  of  the  Thursday  lecture 
in  Boston.  This  could  scarcely  have  been 
pleasant,  of  course,  either  to  the  preacher  or 
his  people.  But  a  little  tact,  above  all  a  sense 
of  humour,  would  have  smoothed  the  sharp- 
ness of  the  controversy.  Only,  these  qualities 
were  precisely  the  ones  which  the  Puritans 
and   the   Quakers   both   conspicuously   lacked. 


134  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Against  the  Puritan  persistency,  therefore, 
there  was  ranged  the  exceeding  contumacy  of 
the  Quakers.  And  if  the  war  had  been  left  to 
fight  itself  out,  the  Quakers,  because  they  had 
a  great  principle  on  their  side,  would  probably 
have  won  the  day,  revolting  and  bloody  as  must 
have  been  the  battles.  Happily,  however,  three 
or  four  influences  cooperated  to  put  an  end  to 
this  unseemly  conflict. 

One  of  the  sufferers  from  persecution  hav- 
ing gone  to  England  and  gained  access  to 
Charles  II,  brought  back  from  that  monarch 
a  peremptory  command  that  the  death  penalty 
against  the  Quakers  should  be  no  more  in- 
flicted and  that  those  who  were  under  judg- 
ment or  in  prison  should  be  sent  to  England 
for  trial.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  too,  —  who 
had  returned  to  England  some  time  before,  and 
was  watching  with  great  interest,  though  at  a 
distance,  the  course  of  events  in  and  about  Bos- 
ton, —  perceived  that  the  intolerance  of  "Wilson 
and  Cotton  would  work  great  harm  to  the  col- 
ony, and  to  these  two  teachers  of  the  Boston 
First  Church  he  had  addressed  a  manly  letter 
of  remonstrance.  Most  important  of  all  for 
the  Quakers,  John  Norton,  who  of  all  the  clergy 
had  exercised  the  most  baleful  influence  in  the 
direction  of  intolerance,  died  in  1663,  suddenly 


Sir  Richard  Sai.tonstall 


Freedom  to  Worship  God  135 

and  of  apoplexy,  and  the  friends  of  the  Qua- 
kers, after  the  fashion  of  the  day,  pronounced 
his  sudden  taking  off  a  punishment  sent  by 
the  Lord. 

Already  John  Norton  had  been  nearly  fright- 
ened to  death  in  England  by  the  Quakers.  The 
narrow-minded  but  well-meaning  priest  had 
been  sent  with  Simon  Bradstreet  to  present  an 
address  to  the  just-crowned  Charles  and  find 
out  what  his  attitude  towards  the  colonies  was 
to  be.  Norton  had  accepted  this  mission  with 
reluctance,  for  he  knew  perfectly  well  that,  in 
the  eye  of  the  English  law,  the  executions  he 
had  pushed  against  the  Quakers  were  homicide. 
But,  after  long  vacillation,  "  the  Lord  so  en- 
couraged and  strengthened  his  heart  "  that  he 
ventured  to  sail.  From  the  king  and  his  prime 
minister  he  and  his  companion  soon  found  they 
had  nothing  to  fear,  but  they  were  none  the 
less  uncomfortable  in  London,  the  reason 
whereof  may  be  gleaned  from  this  anecdote 
related  by  Sewel : 

"  Now  the  deputies  of  New  England  came 
to  London,  and  endeavoured  to  clear  them- 
selves as  much  as  possible,  but  especially 
priest  Norton,  who  bowed  no  less  reverently 
before  the  archbishop,  than  before  the  king. 
.  .  .  They  would  fain  have  altogether  excused 


136  St.  Botolph's  Town 

themselves;  and  priest  Norton  thought  it  suf- 
ficient to  say  that  he  did  not  assist  in  the 
bloody  trial  nor  had  advised  to  it. 

11  But  John  Copeland,  whose  ear  was  cut  off 
at  Boston,  charged  the  contrary  upon  him: 
and  G.  Fox  the  elder,  got  occasion  to  speak 
with  them  in  the  presence  of  some  of  his 
friends  and  asked  Simon  Bradstreet,  one  of 
the  New  England  magistrates,  '  whether  he 
had  not  a  hand  in  putting  to  death  those  they 
nicknamed  Quakers  "?  He  not  being  able  to 
deny  this  confessed  he  had.  Then  G.  Fox 
asked  him  and  his  associates  that  were  present, 
1  whether  they  would  acknowledge  themselves 
to  be  subjects  to  the  law  of  England?  and  if 
they  did  by  what  law  they  had  put  his  friends 
to  death?  '  They  answered  '  They  were  sub- 
ject to  the  laws  of  England  and  they  had  put 
his  friends  to  death  by  the  same  law  as  the 
Jesuits  were  put  to  death  in  England.'  Here- 
upon G.  Fox  asked,  '  whether  they  did  believe 
that  those,  his  friends  whom  they  had  put  to 
death,  were  Jesuits  or  jesuistically  affected?  ' 
They  said  '  Nay.'  '  Then  '  replied  G.  Fox,  '  ye 
have  murdered  them;  for  since  ye  put  them 
to  death  by  the  law  that  Jesuits  are  put  to 
death  here  in  England,  it  plainly  appears  you 


Freedom  to  Worship  Cod  137 

have  put   them   to   death  arbitrarily,   vrithout 
any  law.'  " 

Fox  might  have  turned  the  tables,  it  is  clear, 
upon  the  magistrate  and  the  minister,  but  he 
had  no  desire  to  do  that.  Though  many  royal- 
ists urged  him  to  prosecute  relentlessly  these 
New  England  persecutors  of  his  followers,  he 
said  he  preferred  to  leave  them  "  to  the  Lord 
to  whom  vengeance  belonged."  So  Bradstreet 
and  John  Norton  came  back  to  their  homes 
in  safety  though  they  passed  a  very  bad  quar- 
ter of  a  year  in  London. 

The  election  in  1673  of  Leverett.as  governor 
sounded,  however,  the  death-knell  to  persecu- 
tion. For  though  he  had  been  trained  under 
Cotton's  preaching,  he  was  personally  opposed 
to  violent  methods  of  suppressing  dissenting 
sects,  and,  during  his  administration,  the  Bap- 
tists, the  Quakers  and  all  the  rest  worshipped 
their  God  undisturbed  by  any  legal  interfer- 
ence. Long  and  bitter  had  been  the  struggle, 
but  now,  at  last,  there  was  assured  to  those 
in  Massachusetts  a  boon  for  which  men  have 
ever  been  content  to  yield  up  their  life  in  dun- 
geons, on  the  scaffold  and  at  the  stake,  —  that 
very  noble  and  precious  thing  we  call  "  free- 
dom to  worship  God." 


VIII 

BOSTON    AS    JOHN    DUNTON    SAW    IT 

What  the  Journal  of  Madame  Knight  is  to 
those  who  are  studying  tavern  and  transpor- 
tation conditions  in  the  New  England  of  two 
centuries  ago,1  the  Letters  of  John  Dunton  are 
to  us  when  we  are  concerned  with  Boston  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
That  time  was  peculiarly  barren  of  description 
at  the  hands  of  visitors,  upon  whom  the  city 
made  an  impression  rather  favourable  as  a 
whole.  Sewall's  Diary  is  of  inestimable  value, 
of  course,  but  he  was  a  part  of  all  that  he  de- 
scribed and  so  could  not  bring  an  unbiased 
mind  to  bear  upon  his  subject.  And  many  of 
the  visitors  who  wrote  about  us  took  a  hostile 
tone  and  so  presented  material  by  no  means 
trustworthy. 

Sometimes,  to  be  sure,  there  was  good  rea- 
son for  the  harshness  of  the  picture  drawn. 
When  Jasper  Bankers  and  Peter  Sluyter,  for 

'See  "Among  Old  New  England  Inns." 
138 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      139 

instance,  gained  the  impressions  which  have 
since  been  published  by  the  Long  Island  His- 
torical Society,  they  were  strangers,  unable  to 
speak  English,  and  "  as  Jesuits  who  had  come 
here  for  no  good  "  were  of  course  regarded 
with  suspicion.  Some  of  the  things  which 
Dunton  saw  through  rather  rose-coloured 
glasses,  they  seem  to  have  found  not  at  all 
prepossessing.  But  their  understatements  of 
the  country's  attractions  are  generally  less  to 
be  credited  than  his  slight  overstatement. 
"What  they  wrote  is  interesting,  though,  and 
some  few  passages  from  their  pens  may  well 
enough  be  quoted  before  we  proceed  to  enjoy 
Dunton 's  racy  discourse. 

Our  Jesuit  friends  shared  in  a  fast  day  at 
one  of  the  Boston  churches  and  they  were  not 
in  the  least  edified.  "  In  the  first  place  a  min- 
ister made  a  prayer  in  the  pulpit  of  full  two 
hours  in  length;  after  which  an  old  minister 
delivered  a  sermon  an  hour  long,  and  after 
that  a  prayer  was  made  and  some  verses  sung 
out  of  the  psalm.  In  the  afternoon  three  or 
four  hours  were  consumed  with  nothing  except 
prayers,  three  ministers  relieving  each  other 
alternately:  when  one  was  tired  another  went 
up  into  the  pulpit.  The  inhabitants  are  all 
Independent  in  matter  of  religion,  if  it  can  be 


140  St.  Botolph's  Town 


called  religion;  many  of  them  perhaps  more 
for  the  purposes  of  enjoying  the  benefit  of  its 
privileges  than  for  any  regard  to  truth  and 
godliness.  .  .  .  All  their  religion  consists  in 
observing  Sunday  by  not  working  or  going 
into  the  taverns  on  that  day;  but  the  houses 
are  worse  than  the  taverns.  .  .  .  There  is  a 
penalty  for  cursing  and  swearing  such  as  they 
please  to  impose,  the  witnesses  thereof  being 
at  liberty  to  insist  upon  it.  Nevertheless,  you 
discover  little  difference  between  this  and  other 
places.  Drinking  and  fighting  occur  there  not 
less  than  elsewhere." 

One  of  the  most  curious  items  is  their  pic- 
ture of  Harvard  College.  Apparently  the  in- 
stitution was  not  then  very  flourishing  (June, 
1680),  for  they  found  only  ten  students  and 
no  professor!  On  entering  the  College  build- 
ing they  discovered  "  eight  or  ten  young  fel- 
lows sitting  about,  smoking  tobacco,  with  the 
smoke  of  which  the  room  was  so  full  that  you 
could  hardly  see ;  and  the  whole  house  smelt  so 
strong  of  it  that  when  I  was  going  upstairs,  I 
said,  this  is  certainly  a  tavern.  .  .  .  They 
could  hardly  speak  a  word  of  Latin  so  that  my 
comrade  could  not  converse  with  them.  They 
took  us  to  the  library  where  there  was  nothing 
particular.    We  looked  over  it  a  little." 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It        141 

Dunton 's  experience  at  Harvard  we  shall 
find  to  be  quite  a  different  one  though  his  visit 
there  was  only  six  years  later  than  that  of  the 
missionaries.  A  very  red-blooded  gentleman 
was  this  London  bookseller  and  journalist,  who, 
after  Monmouth's  insurrection,  came  to  New 
England  to  sell  a  consignment  of  books  and  so 
retrieve  his  depressed  fortunes.  Dunton  had 
been  intended  for  the  ministry,  but  developing 
some  tendencies  of  the  gay  Lothario  stripe  he 
became,  instead,  apprenticed  to  a  bookseller 
and,  succeeding  in  this  line  of  work,  soon  set 
up  a  shop  for  himself.  On  August  3,  1682,  he 
married  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley, 
a  distinguished  non-conformist  minister.  One 
sister  of  this  lady  became  the  mother  of  John 
Wesley  and  another  the  wife  of  Defoe.  She 
herself  must  have  been  a  remarkable  person 
for  she  bold  the  affection  of  her  flighty  hus- 
band the  while  she  enabled  him  to  keep  his 
credit  good  and  to  be  of  financial  aid  to  several 
dependent  relatives. 

She  had  a  piquant  dash  of  Bohemianism, 
too,  and  this  adds  to  her  charm  for  us,  as  for 
her  devoted  spouse.  She  and  John  were  al- 
ways Iris  and  Philaret  to  each  other  and  in- 
stead of  having  a  house  and  living  staidly  in 
it  they   settled   down,   when  their  honeymoon 


142  St.  Botolph's  Town 

days  were  over,  in  the  Black  Raven,  on  Prince's 
street,  London,  where  they  lived  for  two  years 
without  a  single  care.  "  Look  which  way  we 
would  the  world  was  always  smiling  on  us," 
wrote  Dunton  of  this  time  of  their  lives.  ' '  The 
piety  and  good-humour  of  Iris  made  our  lives 
one  continued  courtship."  But  our  bookseller 
had  been  "  born  under  a  rambling  planet  " 
and  so,  when  opportunity  came  to  him,  he 
armed  himself  with  a  stock  of  his  wares,  took 
along  plenty  of  ink  and  white  paper  and  went 
forth  to  sell  books,  —  and  make  them.  In  his 
letters  home  he  was,  from  the  start,  very  de- 
liberate and  naive  writing  his  wife  from  Cowes 
all  about  her  leave-taking  with  him,  adding  as 
explanation  that  "  'tis  necessary  to  render 
the  History  of  my  Rambles  perfect,  which  I 
design  to  print." 

During  the  voyage  Dunton  enjoyed  a  sea- 
sickness which  he  so  vividly  describes  as  to 
induce  similar  suffering  on  the  part  of  his 
readers.  But  when  the  New  World  was 
reached  he  recovered  speedily  and  began  dili- 
gently to  write  back  to  Iris  and  his  friends  all 
he  did,  saw,  read  or  squeezed  out  of  others  in 
the  course  of  his  stay  in  the  town.  The  first 
letter  descriptive  of  Boston  was  addressed  to 
his  London  printer,  sixty  letters  to  Iris  having 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      143 

been  immediately  dispatched  previous  to  the 
inditing  of  this  one.  To  Larkin  he  declares 
that  he  will  in  this  New  England  letter  "  1. 
Give  an  account  of  my  reception  at  Boston. 
2.  The  character  of  my  Boston  Landlord,  his 
wife  and  daughter:  3.  Give  you  an  account  of 
my  being  admitted  into  the  freedom  of  the 
City:  4.  I  shall  describe  next  the  town  of 
Boston,  it  being  the  Metropolis  of  New  Eng- 
land; and  say  something  of  the  government, 
Law  and  Customs  thereof.  5.  I  shall  relate 
the  Visits  I  made,  the  Remarkable  friendships 
I  contracted,  and  shall  conclude  with  the  char- 
acter of  Madam  Brick  as  the  Flower  of  Bos- 
ton, and  some  other  Ladyes.  And  I'll  omit 
nothing  that  happened  (if  remarkable)  during 
my  stay  here.  And  in  all  this  I  will  not  copy 
from  other,  as  is  usual  with  most  Travellers, 
but  relate  my  own  Observations."  After 
which  preface  Dunton  goes  on  with  character- 
istic verbosity  to  tell  his  little  tale.  Opposite 
to  the  Town  House  he  found  "  in  Capital 
Letters : 

LODGINGS    TO    BE    LET   WITH  A   CON- 
VENIENT  WAREHOUSE 

"  I  found  'twas  convenient  for  my  purpose 
and  so  we  soon  made  a  bargain.    My  Landlord, 


144  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Mr.  Eicliard  Wilkins,  like  good  old  Jacob,  is  a 
good  plain  man.  He  was  formerly  a  bookseller 
in  Limerick,  and  fled  hither  on  the  account  of 
conscience  .  .  .  and  is  now  a  member  of  Mr. 
Willard's  church." 

Having  unloaded  his  books,  opened  his  shop 
and  presented  letters  which  he  bore  to  the 
Deputy  Governor,  William  Stoughton,  and  to 
Joseph  Dudley  [Governor  from  1702-1715] 
Dunton  was  made  a  freeman  of  the  town 
through  the  good  offices  of  Francis  Burroughs. 
In  a  book  at  the  City  Clerk's  office  may  still  be 
found  the  document  of  this  last  transaction 
which  is  so  interesting  that  I  herewith  repro- 
duce it: 

"  Witnesse  these  presents,  that  I,  Francis 
Burrowes,  of  Bostone,  Merchant,  doe  bind  my- 
selfe,  my  Executors  and  Administrators  to 
Edward  Willis,  Treasurer  of  the  Towne  of 
Bostone,  in  the  sume  of  forty  pounds  in  mony, 
that  John  Dunton  booke-seller,  nor  any  of  his 
familie,  shall  not  be  chargeable  to  this  towne 
duringe  his  or  any  of  there  abode  therein. 
Witnesse  my  hand  the  16th  of  February, 
1685. 

"  That  is,  sd  Burrowes  binds  himselfe  as 
above  to  sd  Willis  and  his  successors  in  the 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      145 

office  of  Treasurer,  omitted  in  the  due  place 
ahove.     (Signed)  Francis  Burroughs. 

"  John  Dunton." 

This  formality  over,  Dunton  was  in  a  posi- 
tion to  enjoy  himself.  Which  he  did  hy 
promptly  accepting  an  invitation  to  "  dine 
with  the  Governour  and  Magistrates  of  Bos- 
ton; the  Place  of  Entertainment  was  the 
Town-Hall,  and  the  Feast  Rich  and  Noble :  As 
I  enter 'd  the  Room  where  the  Dinner  was,  the 
Governour  in  Person  [Bradstreet],  the  Deputy 
Governour,  Major  Dudley,  and  the  other  Mag- 
istrates, did  me  the  Honour  to  give  me  a  par- 
ticular welcome  to  Boston,  and  to  wish  me  suc- 
cess in  my  undertaking."  One  wishes  that 
Dunton  had  dwelt  upon  this  dinner  instead  of 
proceeding  to  tell  us,  guide-book  fashion,  about 
the  latitude  and  longitude  of.  the  city,  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  had  been  settled.  But  we 
would  not  for  a  great  deal  be  without  his  de- 
scription of  the  houses : 

"  The  Houses  are  for  the  most  part  raised 
on  the  Sea-banks,  and  wharfed  out  with  great 
industry  and  cost;  many  of  them  standing 
upon  piles,  close  together,  on  each  side  the 
streets,  as  in  London,  and  furnished  with  many 
fair  Shops ;   where  all  sorts  of  commodities  are 


146  St.  Botolph's  Town 

sold.  Their  streets  are  many  and  large,  paved 
with  Pebbles;  the  Materials  of  their  Houses 
are  Brick,  Stone,  Lime,  handsomely  contrived, 
and  when  any  New  Houses  are  built,  they  are 
made  conformable  to  our  New  Buildings  in 
London  since  the  fire.  Mr.  Shrimpton  has  a 
very  stately  house  there,  with  a  Brass  Kettle 
atop,  to  shew  his  Father  was  not  ashamed  of 
his  Original  [he  had  been  a  brazier] :  Mr.  John 
Usher  (to  the  honour  of  our  Trade)  is  judg'd 
to  be  worth  above  £20,000,  and  hath  one  of  the 
best  Houses  in  Boston ;  They  have  Three  Fair 
and  Large  Meeting-Houses  or  Churches,  [the 
First  Church,  which  stood  on  the  south  side  of 
what  is  now  State  street  on  Washington  street; 
the  second  church  or  North  Meeting-House 
which  stood  at  the  head  of  North  square ;  and 
the  Third  or  Old  South  Church]  commodiously 
built  in  several  parts  of  the  Town,  which  yet 
are  hardly  sufficient  to  receive  the  Inhabitants, 
and  strangers  that  come  in  from  all  Parts. 

"  Their  Town-House  [which  stood  from 
1657  to  1711  on  the  site  of  the  present  Old 
State  House]  is  built  upon  Pillars  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  Town,  where  their  merchants  meet 
and  confer  every  day.  In  the  Chambers  above 
they  keep  their  Monthly  Courts.  The  South- 
side  of  the  Town  is  adorned  with  Gardens  and 


m 


Simon  Bradstreet 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      147 


Orchards.  The  Town  is  rich  and  very  popu- 
lous, much  frequented  by  strangers.  Here  is 
the  dwelling  of  Mr.  Bradstreet,  Esq.  their 
present  Gouvernour.  On  the  North-west  and 
North-east  two  constant  Fairs  are  kept,  for 
daily  Traffick  thereunto.  On  the  South  there 
is  a  small  but  pleasant  Common,  where  the 
Gallants  a  little  before  sunset  walk  with  their 
Marina  let  Madams,  as  we  do  in  Moorfield  &c 
till  the  Nine-a  Clock  Bell  rings  them  home; 
after  which  the  Constables  walk  their  Rounds 
to  see  good  order  kept,  and  to  take  up  loose 
people.  In  the  high-street  towards  the  Com- 
mon, there  are  very  fair  Buildings,  some  of 
which  are  of  stone." 

Dunton  was  a  kindly  and  a  liberal  person, 
so  he  can  speak  with  very  little  patience  of  the 
religious  persecutions  which  he  found  going  on 
all  about  him.  "  The  Quakers  here  have  been 
a  suffering  Generation,"  he  writes,  "  and 
there's  hardly  any  of  the  Yea  and  Nay  Per- 
suasion but  will  give  you  a  severe  account  of 
it;  for  the  Bostonians,  though  their  fore- 
fathers fled  hither  to  enjoy  liberty  of  con- 
science, are  very  unwilling  any  should  enjoy  it 
but  themselves:  But  they  are  now  grown  more 
moderate.  The  Government,  both  Civil  and 
Ecclesiastical  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Independ- 


148  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ents  and  Presbyterians,  or  at  least  of  those 
that  pretend  to  be  such." 

Thanks  to  Dunton,  we  have  an  outsider's 
glimpse  of  a  church  collection  among  the  Puri- 
tans. "  On  Sundays  in  the  After-noon,  after 
Sermon  is  ended,  the  People  in  the  Galleries 
come  down  and  march  two  a  Brest,  up  one  Isle 
and  down  the  other,  until  they  come  before  the 
Desk,  for  Pulpit  they  have  none:  Before  the 
Desk  is  a  long  Pew,  where  the  Elders  and 
Deacons  sit,  one  of  them  with  a  Money-box  in 
his  hand,  into  which  the  People,  as  they  pass 
put  their  Offerings,  some  a  shilling,  some  two 
shillings,  and  some  half  a  Crown  or  five  shil- 
lings, according  to  the  Ability  or  Liberality  of 
the  Person  giving.  This  I  look  upon  to  be  a 
Praise-worthy  Practice.  This  money  is  dis- 
tributed to  supply  the  Necessities  of  the  Poor, 
according  to  their  several  wants,  for  they  have 
no  Beggars  there.  Every  Church  (for  so  they 
call  their  particular  Congregations)  have  one 
Pastor,  one  Teacher,  Ruling  Elders  and  Dea- 
cons." 

Borrowing  adroitly  from  Josselyn's  Two 
Voyages  Dunton  now  describes  what  he  calls 
"  their  Laws:  This  Colony  is  a  Body  Cor- 
porate, Politick  in  Fact,  by  the  Name  of,  The 
Governeur  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      149 

Bay  in  New-England.  Their  Constitution  is, 
That  there  shall  be  one  governour  and  Deputy- 
G-overnour,  and  eighteen  Assistants  of  the 
same  Company,  from  time  to  time.  That  the 
Governour  and  Deputy  Governour,  who  for 
this  year  are  Esq  Bradstreet  and  Esq  Stough- 
ton,  Assistants  and  all  other  officers,  to  be 
chosen  from  among  the  Freemen  the  last 
Wednesday  in  Easter  Term,  yearly,  in  the 
General  Court.  The  Governour  to  take  his 
corporal  oath  to  be  True  and  Faithful  to  the 
Government,  and  to  give  the  same  Oath  to  the 
other  Officers.  They  are  to  hold  a  Court  once 
a  month,  and  any  seven  to  be  a  sufficient  Quo- 
rum. They  are  to  have  four  General  Courts 
kept  in  Term-Time,  and  once  General  and  sol- 
emn Assembly,  to  make  Laws  and  Ordinances; 
Provided,  They  be  not  contrary  or  repugnant 
to  the  Laws  and  Statutes  of  the  Realm  of  Eng- 
land. In  Anno  1646,  They  drew  up  a  Body  of 
their  Laws  for  the  benefit  of  the  People. 
Every  Town  sends  two  Burgesses  to  their 
Great  and  Solem  General  Court. 

"  Their  Laws  for  Reformation  of  Manners 
are  very  severe,"  he  now  goes  on  to  say,  "  yet 
but  little  regarded  by  the  People,  so  at  least 
to  make  'em  better  or  cause  'em  to  mend  their 
manners.    For  being  drunk,  they  either  Whip 


150  St.  Botolph's  Town 

or  impose  a  Fine  of  Five  shillings :  And  yet 
notwithstanding  this  Law,  there  are  several  of 
them  so  addicted  to  it,  that  they  begin  to  doubt 
whether  it  be  a  Sin  or  no;  and  seldom  go  to 
Bed  without  Muddy  Brains.  For  Cursing  and 
Swearing  they  bore  through  the  Tongue  with 
a  hot  Iron.  For  kissing  a  woman  in  the  Street, 
though  but  in  way  of  Civil  Salute,1  Whipping 
or  a  Fine.  .  .  .  For  adultry  they  are  put  to 
Death,  and  so  for  "Witchcraft;  For  that  they 
are  a  great  many  Witches  in  this  Country  the 
late  Tryals  of  20  New  England  Witches  is  a 
sufficient  Proof.  .  .  .  An  English  Woman  suf- 
fering an  Indian  to  have  carnal  knowledge  of 
her  had  an  Indian  cut  out  exactly  in  red  cloth, 
and  sewed  upon  her  right  Arm,  and  enjoyned 
to  wear  it  Twelve  Months.  Scolds  they  gag, 
and  set  them  at  their  own  Doors,  for  certain 
hours  together,  for  all  comers  and  goers  to 
gaze  at.  Stealing  is  punished  with  Restor- 
ing four-fold,  if  able;  if  not,  they  are  sold 
for  some  years,  and  so  are  poor  Debtors.  I 
have  not  heard  of  many  Criminals  of  this 
sort.  .  .  .  For  I  say  again  you  must  make 
a  Distinction:  For  amongst  all  this  Dross, 
there  runs  here  and  there  a  vein  of  pure  Gold : 
And  though  the  Generality  are  what  I  have 

1  See  "  Among  Old  New  England  Inns,"  p.  22. 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      151 


describ'd  'em,  yet  is  there  as  sincere  a  Pious 
and  truly  Religious  People  among  them,  as  is 
any  where  in  the  Whole  AVorlH  to  be  found. 

"  The  next  thing  I  have  to  do  is  to  proceed 
to  give  you  some  account  of  the  Visits  I  made : 
For  having  gotten  a  Wa rehouse  and  my  Books 
ready  for  sale,  (for  you  know  mine  was  a 
Learned  Venture)  'twas  my  Business  next  to 
seek  out  the  Buyers :  So  I  made  my  first  Visit 
to  that  Reverend  and  Learned  Divine,  Mr.  In- 
crease Mather:  He's  the  Present  Rector  of 
Harvard  College :  He  is  deservedly  called, 
The  Metropolitan  Clergy-Man  of  the  Kingdom. 
And  the  next  to  him  in  Fame  (whom  I  likewise 
visited  at  the  same  time)  is  his  son,  Mr.  Cot- 
ton Mather,  an  Excellent  Preacher,  a  great 
Writer ;  He  has  very  lately  finish  'd  the  Church- 
History  of  New  England,  which  I'm  going  to 
print;  And  which  is  more  than  all,  He  Lives 
the  Doctrine  he  Preaches.  After  an  hour  spent 
in  his  company  (which  I  took  for  Heaven)  he 
shew'd  me  his  Study:  And  I  do  think  he  has 
one  of  the  best  (for  a  Private  Library)  that 
I  ever  knew.  ...  I  am  sure  it  was  the  best 
sight  I  had  in  Boston. 

"  Early  the  next  morning  (before  the  Sun 
could  shew  his  Face)  I  went  to  wait  upon  Mr. 
AATillard :  He 's  the  Minister  of  the  South  Meet- 


152  St.  Botolph's  Town 

lug  in  Boston:  He's  a  Man  of  Profound  No- 
tions .  Can  say  what  he  will,  and  prove  what 
he  says :  I  darken  his  Merits  if  I  call  him  less 
than  a  Walking  Library."  Among  the  other 
clergymen  visited  by  Mr.  Dunton  that  day 
when  he  rose  so  early  was  Joshua  Mpody,  hon- 
ourably distinguished  by  his  opposition  to  the 
witchcraft  delusion  and  extolled  by  Dunton,  a 
little  further  on,  for  a  sermon  which  he 
preached  upon  the  hanging  of  James  Morgan 
for  murder. 

The  booksellers  of  the  town  are  now  de- 
scribed, together  with  Samuel  Green,  the 
printer,  George  Monk,  landlord  of  the  Blue 
Anchor,  —  which,  standing  as  it  did  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Globe  building,  was  a  very  con- 
venient refuge  for  Dunton  when  the  felicity  of 
family  life  at  the  Wilkins'  began  to  pall,  —  and 
Dr.  Bullivant  in  whom  were  combined  the  pro- 
fessions of  apothecary  and  physician.  Bulli- 
vant was  a  good  deal  of  a  character.  It  is  of 
him  that  Hutchinson  says :  ' '  Among  the  more 
liberal  was  one  Bullivant,  an  apothecary  who 
had  been  a  justice  of  the  peace  under  Andros. 
Lord  Bellamont,  going  from  the  lecture  to  his 
house,  with  a  great  crowd  round  him,  passed 
by  Bullivant  standing  at  his  shop  door  loiter- 
ing.   '  Doc  lor,'  says  his  lordship  with  an  audi- 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      153 

ble  voice,  '  you  have  lost  a  precious  sermon 
to-day.'  Bullivant  whispered  to  one  of  his 
companions  who  stood  by  him,  '  If  I  could  have 
got  as  much  by  being  there  as  his  lordship  will, 
I  would  have  been  there  too.'  "  Bullivant  was 
a  Church  of  England  man  and  his  lordship  — 
ought  to  have  been. 

"We  are  now  come,  in  Dunton 's  discursive 
letter  to  Larkin,  to  the  portion  devoted  to  his 
"  Female  Friends  in  Boston."  Highly  enter- 
taining reading  this !  One  of  these  friends  was 
a  maiden,  another  was  the  wife  of  a  rival  book- 
seller and  the  third  and  most  significant,  re- 
ferred to  interchangeably  as  "  Madam  Brick  " 
and  "  the  flower  of  Boston  "  was  a  widow. 
"  I  shall  Speak  first  of  the  Damsel,  [Comfort 
Wilkins,  his  landlord's  daughter].  .  .  .  She 
was  a  little  Transported  with  the  Zeal  of  Vol- 
untary Virginity  as  knowing  there's  few  Prac- 
tice it.  But  tho'  an  old  (or  Superannuated) 
Maid,  in  Boston,  is  thought  such  a  curse  as 
nothing  can  exceed  it,  and  looked  on  as  a  Dis- 
mal Spectacle,  yet  she  by  her  Good  Nature, 
Gravity  and  strict  Vertue,  convinces  all  that 
'tis  not  her  Necessity  but  her  Choice  that  keeps 
her  a  Virgin.  She's  now  about  Twenty  Six 
years  (the  Age  which  we  call  a  Thornback)  yet 
she  never  disguises  her  self  by  the  Gayetys  of 


154  St.  Botolph's  Town 

a  Youthful  Dress,  and  talks  as  little  as  she 
thinks  of  Love :  She  goes  to  no  Balls  or  Dan- 
cing Match,  as  they  do  who  go  (to  such  Fairs) 
in  order  to  meet  with  Chapmen.  .  .  .  Her 
Looks,  her  Speech,  her  whole  behaviour  are  so 
very  chaste,  that  but  once  going  to  kiss  her  I 
thought  she  had  blush 'd  to  death."  [One  won- 
ders if  Dunton  ever  did  kiss  her ;  we  know  that 
he  talked  to  her  by  the  hour  of  "  Platonick 
Love."] 

Mrs.  Green,  though  married,  seems  to  have 
been  quite  as  modest  as  this  incomparable 
maiden.  The  talk  of  that  time  was  not  always 
delicate  and  this  the  printer's  wife  set  herself 
to  reform.  Dunton  tells  us  that  she  "  was  so 
severely  scrupulous  that,  there  being  an  invi- 
tation of  several  Persons  to  a  Gentleman's 
House  in  Boston  and  some  that  were  invited 
resolving  to  be  very  merry,  one  of  the  company 
made  this  Objection  '  that  Mrs.  Green  woul'd 
be  there  which  woul'd  spoil  their  Mirth.'  " 

Of  the  Flower  of  Boston  Dunton  makes  the 
rather  terrifying  statement  that  her  "  Head 
has  been  cut  off  yet  she  lives  and  walks." 
This,  being  interpreted,  means  that  the  lady's 
husband  was  dead  and  that  she  devoted  her 
life  to  keeping  his  memory  green.  "  Yet  she 
did  not  think  her  self  oblig'd  to  such  Starch 'd- 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      155 

ness  of  Carriage,"  comments  Dunton  tersely, 
"  as  is  usual  among  the  Bostonians,  who  value 
themselves  thereby  so  much  that  they  are  ready 
to  say  to  all  others,  Stand  off,  I  am  holier  than 
thou." 

Not  all  the  women  in  the  Boston  of  that  day 
were  in  a  class  with  Caesar's  wife,  however. 
Dunton  records  that  he  had  ' '  several  Acquaint- 
ance with  Persons  of  a  far  different  character : 
For  all  sorts  came  to  my  Ware  house  to  buy 
Books,  according  to  their  several  Inclinations. 
There  was  Mrs.  Ab — 1,  (a  Person  of  Quality) : 
A  well-wisher  to  the  Mathematics:  A  young 
Proficient,  but  willing  to  learn,  and  therefore 
came  to  Enquire  for  the  School  of  Venus ;  She 
was  one  of  the  first  that  pos'd  me,  in  asking 
for  a  Book  I  cou'd  not  help  her  to;  I  told  her 
however,  I  had  the  School  of  Vertue ;  but  that 
was  a  Book  she  had  no  occasion  for.  .  .  .  Yret 
bad  as  she  is,  for  her  Father's  sake,  1  hope 
she  '11  live  to  repent.  The  next  I  shall  mention 
is  Mrs.  D — ,  who  has  a  bad  face  and  a  worse 
tongue ;  and  has  the  report  of  a  Witch ;  whether 
she  be  one  or  no,  I  know  not,  but  she  has  ig- 
norance and  malice  enough  to  make  her  one : 
And  indeed  she  has  done  very  odd  things,  but 
hitherto  such  as  are  rather  strange  than  hurt- 
ful;  yea,  some  of  them  are  pretty  and  pleas- 


156  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ing,  but  such  as  I  think  cann't  be  done  without 
the  help  of  the  Devil:  As  for  instance:  She'll 
take  9  sticks,  and  lay  'em  across,  and  by  mum- 
bling a  few  words,  make  'em  all  stand  up  an 
End  like  a  pair  of  Nine-Pins ;  but  she  had  best 
have  a  care,  for  they  that  use  the  Devil's  help 
to  make  sport,  may  quickly  come  to  do  mischief. 
I  have  been  told  by  some  that  she  has  actually 
indented  with  the  Devil;  and  that  he  is  to  do 
what  she  would  have  him  for  a  time,  and  after- 
wards he  is  to  have  her  Soul  in  Exchange: 
What  pains  poor  Wretches  take  to  make  sure 
of  Hell!  "  This  naive  description  of  a 
"  witch,"  hot  from  the  pen  of  a  contemporary, 
is  most  interesting  and  worth  bearing  in  mind 
when  we  are  studying  the  phenomenon  of  witch- 
craft, as  seen  by  the  persecuting  Mathers. 

Of  women  who  shop  without  knowing  what 
they  want  the  Boston  of  that  day  evidently  had 
its  due  share.  Dunton  amusingly  describes  one 
of  them:  "  Doll-  S-der's  life  is  a  perpetual 
Contradiction ;  and  she  is  made  up  of  '  I  will  ' 
and  '  I  will  not.'  '  Reach  me  that  Book,  yet 
let  it  alone  too;  but  let  me  see't  however:  and 
yet  'tis  no  great  matter  neither;  '  was  her  con- 
stant Dialect  in  my  Ware  house:  She's  very 
fantastical  but  cann't  be  called  Irresolute;  for 
an  Irresolute  Person  is  always  beginning,  and 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      157 

she  never  makes  an  End.  She  writes  and  blots 
out  again,  whilst  the  other  deliberates  what  to 
write :  I  know  two  negatives  make  an  affirma- 
tive but  what  her  aye  and  no  together  make 
I  know  not.  Her  head  is  just  like  a  Squirrel's 
Cage  and  her  Mind  the  Squirrel  that  whirls  it 
round."  One  of  his  single  women  customers 
Dunton  characterizes  as  "  Vox  et  preterea 
nihil,"  adding  that  it  is  certainly  "  some  bodies 
happiness  that  she  is  yet  unmarried,  for  she 
wou'd  make  a  Husband  wish  that  she  were 
dumb,  or  he  were  deaf.  .  .  .  She  us'd  to  come 
to  my  Warehouse,  not  to  buy  Books,  (for  she 
talk'd  so  much  she  had  no  time  to  read)  but 
that  others  might  hear  her." 

And  now,  as  if  to  balance  the  entertainment 
offered  by  the  first  part  of  this  letter  Dunton 
reproduces,  almost  in  full,  the  three  sermons 
preached  at  the  unfortunate  James  Morgan 
before  his  execution!  This  event  had  just 
taken  place  in  Boston  and  was  remarkable  for 
being  the  first  of  its  kind  to  occur  there  in  three 
years.  The  two  Mathers  and  Joshua  Moody 
officiated. as  preachers,  the  crowd  present  at  the 
New  Church  being  such  that  "  the  Gallery 
crack 'd,  and  so  they  were  forced  to  remove  to 
Mr.  Willard's."  After  the  execution,  to  which 
Dunton  "  rid  with  Mr.  Cotton  Mather,"  our 


158  St.  Botolph's  Town 

indefatigable  friend,  in  the  company  of  Mrs. 
Green,  Madam  Brick,  Comfort  Wilkins  and  two 
or  three  other  acquaintances  of  both  sexes, 
"  took  a  Bamble  to  a  place  call'd  Governour's 
Island,  about  a  mile  from  Boston,  to  see  a 
whole  Hog  roasted.  We  all  went  in  a  Boat; 
and  having  treated  the  Fair  Sex,  returned  in 
the  Evening." 

To  just  this  period  belongs  the  holding  of 
the  first  Church  of  England  service  in  Boston 
and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  Dunton  was 
present.  The  parson  was  Robert  Ratcliffe  who 
"  the  next  Sunday  after  he  landed,  preached 
in  the  Town-house  and  read  Common-Prayer 
in  his  Surplice,  which  was  so  great  a  Novelty 
to  the  Bostonians,  that  he  had  a  very  large 
Audience,  myself  among  others."  Dunton  also 
bore  his  part  in  the  Training  Day  exercises  on 
the  Common.  "  Tis  their  custom  here  for  all 
that  can  bear  arms,  to  go  out  on  a  Training 
Day :  But  I  thought  a  pike  was  best  for  a  young 
Souldier,  and  so  I  carry 'd  a  Pike;  .  .  .  Be- 
tween you  and  I,  Reader,  there  was  another 
reason  for  it  too,  and  that  was  I  knew  not  how 
to  shoot  off  a  Musquet.  Twas  the  first  time 
I  was  ever  in  arms. 

"  Being  come  into  the  Field  the  Captain 
call'd  us  all  into  Close  Order,  in  order  to  go 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      159 


to  Prayer,  and  then  Pray'd  himself:  And  when 
our  Exercise  was  done,  the  Captain  likewise 
concluded  with  Prayer.  I  have  heard  that  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus,  the  warlike  King  of  Sweden, 
wou'd  before  the  beginning  of  a  Battel,  kneel 
down  devoutly  at  the  head  of  his  Army,  and 
pray  to  God  (the  Giver  of  Victories)  to  give 
them  Success  against  their  Enemies,  which 
commonly  was  the  Event;  and  that  he  was  as 
Careful  also  to  return  thanks  to  God  for  the 
Victory.  But  solemn  Prayer  in  the  Field  upon 
a  Day  of  Training,  I  never  knew  but  in  New 
England,  where  it  seems  it  is  a  common  Cus- 
tom. About  three  of  the  Clock  both  our  Exer- 
cise and  Prayers  being  over,  AYe  had  a  very 
Noble  Dinner,  to  which  all  the  Clergy  were 
invited. ' ' 

The  influence  of  the  "  rambling  planet  " 
under  which  Dunton  had  been  born,  continuing 
as  potent  in  New  England  as  in  old,  our  friend 
made  many  little  journeys  to  places  of  interest 
near  Boston,  diligently  writing  back  to  his  cor- 
respondents on  the  other  side  all  that  befell 
him  on  these  occasions.  His  visit  to  the  com- 
munity "  that  at  first  was  called  New  Town 
but  is  now  made  a  University  and  called  Cam- 
bridge, there  being  a  colledge  erected  there  by 
one  Mr.  John  Harvard,  who  gave  £700  for  the 


160  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Erecting  of  it  in  the  year  1638,"  is  most  enter- 
tainingly described.  "  I  was  invited  hither  by 
Mr.  Cotton  [son  of  the  Reverend  John  Cotton 
and  librarian  of  the  College]  by  whom  I  was 
very  handsomely  Treated  and  shewn  all  that 
was  remarkable  in  it.  He  discoursed  with  me 
about  my  venture  of  Books ;  and  by  this  means 
I  sold  many  of  my  Books  to  the  Colledge." 
The  book  talk  which  then  went  on  between  these 
two  is  pleasantly  hinted  at.  Dunton,  when 
asked  who  were  "  his  great  authors,"  spoke  of 
"  Jeremy  Taylor,  Mr.  John  Bunyan,  who  tho' 
a  man  of  but  very  ordinary  Education,  yet  was 
as  well  known  for  an  Author  through 'out  Eng- 
land as  any,  .  .  .  Eobert  Boyle,  Sir  Matthew 
Hale,  Cowley  and  Dryden."  In  return  for 
which  Cotton  instanced  as  distinguished  con- 
temporary authors  of  New  England  the  "  Fa- 
mous Mr.  Elliot  "  and  the  inevitable  Mathers. 
Eliot,  who  was  now  a  very  old  man,  Dunton 
soon  went  to  see  "  alone  that  I  might  have 
nothing  to  hinder  me  in  conversing  with  him. 
When  I  came  he  receiv'd  me  with  all  the  Ten- 
derness and  respect  imaginable,  and  had  me  up 
into  his  Study;  and  then  he  enquir'd  of  me 
with  all  the  Expressions  of  Love  and  Kindness 
that  cou'd  be  how  my  Father-in-Law,  the  Rev- 
erend   Doctor    Annesly    did?  .  .  .  And    then 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      161 

speaking  to  me,  said,  '  Well,  Young  Man,  how 
goes  the  Work  of  Christ  on  in  England?  '  I 
then  told  him  of  the  Troubles  that  were  there, 
and  how  like  Popery  was  to  be  set  up  again. 
'  No,'  said  he,  '  it  never  will  be,  it  never  shall: 
They  may  indeed  attempt  it ;  they  have  Tower- 
ing Thoughts,  as  their  Brethren  the  Babel- 
Builders  had  of  old,  but  they  shall  never  be  able 
to  bring  their  wicked  Intentions  to  pass;  .  .  ." 
And  this  he  spake  with  good  Assurance. 
'  But,'  says  he,  '  do  the  People  of  God  keep  up 
their  Meetings  still?  Is  the  Gospel  preach 'd? 
Does  the  work  of  Conversion  go  forward?  ' 
...  I  told  him  that  tho'  the  Gaols  were  full 
of  Dissenters,  yet  the  Meetings  were  as  nu- 
merous, and  as  much  throng 'd  as  ever.  And  I 
had  heard  my  Father  say,  That  more  Members 
had  been  added  to  the  Church  the  last  year  than 
in  some  years  before. 

"  Mr.  Elliot  was  very  well  pleas 'd  at  what 
I  had  told,  and  said,  '  It  was  a  Token  for  Good, 
that  God  had  not  forsaken  his  People.'  .  .  . 
After  which  he  presented  me  with  12  Bibles  in 
the  Indian  Language,  and  gave  me  a  charge  to 
present  one  of  'em  to  my  father  Dr.  Annesly; 
he  also  gave  me  Twelve  Speeches  of  Converted 
Indians,  publish 'd  by  himself,  to  give  to  my 
Friends  in  England :  After  which,  he  made  me 


162  St.  Botolph's  Town 

stay  and  dine  with  him,  by  which  means  I  had 
the  opportunity  of  hearing  him  Pray,  and  ex- 
pound the  Scriptures  with  his  Family.  After 
Dinner,  he  told  me  that  both  for  my  own,  but 
especially  for  my  Father's  sake,  whom  he  said 
he  admir'd  above  most  Men  in  England,  if  his 
Countenance  and  Recommendation  cou'd  be  of 
any  Service  to  me,  I  sho'd  not  want  it:  And 
I  have  already  found  the  good  Effects  of  it." 

So  favourably,  indeed,  were  Dunton's  books 
received  that  he  was  almost  persuaded  to  take 
up  his  permanent  residence  in  Boston.  But 
while  debating  the  matter,  he  was  suddenly 
seized  with  a  great  desire  to  ramble  back  to 
London  and  once  again  behold  his  beloved  Iris. 
So,  leaving  his  good  landlord  Wilkins  to  collect 
the  remittances  still  due  him,  he  sailed  for  Eng- 
land, where  he  arrived  early  in  August,  1686. 
His  whole  stay  in  America  covered,  therefore, 
but  four  months.  One  of  his  first  acts,  after 
being  restored  to  the  arms  of  his  faithful  wife, 
was  to  send  his  regards  to  Comfort  Wilkins, 
with  whom  he  had  so  often  discoursed  upon 
Platonic  love,  and  his  "  service  in  a  more  par- 
ticular manner  to  the  Widow  Brick. ' '  Already, 
he  had  let  it  be  known  that  only  the  excellent 
health  enjoyed  by  Iris  prevented  him  from 
making  actual  love  to  this  "  flower  of  Boston." 


Boston  as  John  Dunton  Saw  It      163 

His  subsequent  career  was  a  bit  checkered. 
A  "  ramble  to  Holland,  where  he  lived  four 
months,"  and  up  the  Ehine,  where  he  stayed, 
as  he  himself  says,  "  until  he  had  satisfied  his 
curiosity  and  spent  all  his  money,"  occupied 
the  next  two  years.  Then  he  took  a  shop  op- 
posite London's  Poultry  Counter  which  he 
opened  the  day  the  Prince  of  Orange  entered 
the  city.  Here  he  sold  books  with  varying  suc- 
cess for  ten  years,  publishing,  the  while,  several 
semi-political  pamphlets.  The  blow  of  his  life 
came  in  May,  1697,  in  the  death  of  Iris.  But 
within  twelvemonths  he  had  married  another 
woman,  —  for  her  fortune,  —  and  the  last  years 
of  his  life  were  full  of  squalid  quarrels  with 
this  lady  and  with  her  mother. 

Dunton 's  always-flowery  style  of  composi- 
tion seems  to  have  grown  more  marked  as  time 
went  on,  and  the  Spectator  found  his  effusions 
good  matter  for  ridicule.  One  kind  friend  tried 
to  tell  him  this.  "  If  you  have  essays  or  letters 
that  are  valuable,  call  them  essays  and  letters 
in  short  plain  language,"  this  common-sense 
person  counselled,  "  and  if  you  have  anything 
writ  by  men  of  sense  and  on  subjects  of  impor- 
tance, it  may  sell  without  your  name  to  it." 

But  Dunton  was  now  sixty  and  could  not  give 
up  the  old  way.    To  the  last  his  projects  had 


164  St.  Botolph's  Town 


the  catchword  of  Athenian  appended  to  them. 
He  died  in  obscurity  in  1733,  aged  74.  If  he 
had  never  come  to  Boston  his  name  would  long 
ago  have  been  forgotten.  Even  as  it  is  his 
"  Letters  "  are  almost  unobtainable.  For 
since  the  Prince  Society  of  Boston  reprinted  a 
very  limited  edition,  forty  years  ago,  the  vol- 
ume has  been  growing  every  year  more  and 
more  rare.  To-day  only  collectors  can  boast 
of  its  possession. 


IX 

THE    DYNASTY    OF    THE    MATHERS 

Dunton's  letters  abound,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  references  to  the  Mathers,  Increase  and  Cot- 
ton ;  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  all  the  litera- 
ture of  the  period.  Brooks  Adams  has  cut- 
tingly observed  in  his  remarkable  volume, 
"  The  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,"  that 
one  weak  point  in  the  otherwise  strong  posi- 
tion of  the  early  Massachusetts  clergy  was  that 
the  spirit  of  their  age  did  not  permit  them  to 
make  their  order  hereditary.  With  the  Math- 
ers, however,  the  priesthood  was  hereditary, 
and  they  constituted  a  veritable  dynasty  in 
the  government  of  Boston.  The  story  of  their 
lives  offers  a  remarkable  illustration  of  power 
—  theological  and  otherwise  —  transmitted 
through  at  least  four  generations. 

When  "  the  shining  light  "  was  extinguished 
by  death,  late  in  1652,  he  left  a  widow  who  be- 
came, before  long,  the  second  wife  of  the  Rev- 
erend Richard  Mather,  minister  of  Dorchester. 

165 


166  St.  Botolph's  Town 

This  Mather  had  already  a  theologically- 
minded  son  named  Increase,  who  had  been  born 
in  Dorchester  in  June,  1639,  and  who,  after 
preaching  his  first  sermon  on  his  birthday,  in 
1657,  sailed  for  England  and  pursued  post- 
graduate studies  in  Trinity  College  there. 
Then  he  preached  for  one  winter  in  Devonshire 
and,  in  1659,  became  chaplain  to  the  garrison 
of  Guernsey.  But  the  Restoration  was  now  at 
hand  and,  finding  that  he  must  "  either  con- 
form to  the  Revived  Superstitions  in  the 
Church  of  England  or  leave  the  Island,"  he 
gave  up  his  charge  and,  in  June,  1661,  sailed 
for  home.  The  following  winter  he  passed 
preaching  alternately  for  his  father  and  "  to 
the  New  Church  in  the  North-part  of  Boston." 
In  the  course  of  that  year  the  charms  of  Mrs. 
Mather's  daughter,  Maria  Cotton,  impressed 
themselves  upon  him  and, 

"  On  March  6,  1662,  he  Came  into  the  Mar- 
ried State ;  Espousing  the  only  Daughter,  of  the 
celebrated  Mr.  John  Cotton ;  in  honor  of  whom 
he  did  .  .  .  call  his  First-born  son  by  the  Name 
of  Cotton." 

Two  years  after  his  marriage  Increase 
Mather  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  North 
Church  in  Boston  and  for  some  twenty  years 
he  appears  to  have  performed  with  notable  sue- 


Increase  Mather 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         167 

cess  the  duties  of  this  important  parish.  At 
the  same  time,  he  exercised  —  beneficently  on 
the  whole  —  his  great  power  in  the  temporal 
affairs  of  the  colony.  For  he  had  good  sense 
and  sound  judgment,  —  exactly  the  qualities, 
it  may  be  remarked,  which  his  more  brilliant 
son  conspicuously  lacked. 

One  of  the  most  attractive  traits  in  the 
younger  Mather's  character  is  his  appreciation 
of  his  father.  Barrett  Wendell,  who  has  writ- 
ten a  highly  readable  Life  of  Cotton  Mather, 
observes  dryly  that  the  persecutor  of  the 
witches  "  never  observed  any  other  law  of  God 
quite  so  faithfully  as  the  Fifth  Command- 
ment." And  there  seems  to  have  been  excel- 
lent reason  for  this.  Increase  Mather  devo- 
tedly loved  his  precocious  young  son  and  upon 
him  he  lavished  a  passionate  affection  which 
the  lad  repaid  in  reverence  which  was  almost 
worship.  The  motto  of  Cotton  Mather's  life 
seems  indeed  to  have  been,  My  Father  can  do 
no  "Wrong. 

The  schoolmaster  whose  privilege  it  became 
to  plant  the  seeds  of  learning  in  the  mind  of 
this  hope  of  the  Mathers  was  Ezekiel  Cheever, 
whose  life  Sewall  has  written  for  us  in  the 
following  concise  paragraph : 

"  He  was  born  January  25,  1614.    Came  over 


168  St.  Botolph's  Town 

to  N.  E.  1637,  to  Boston :  To  New  Haven  1638. 
Married  in  the  Fall  and  began  to  teach  School ; 
which  work  he  was  constant  in  till  now.  First, 
at  New-Haven,  then  at  Ipswich;  then  at 
Charlestown;  then  at  Boston,  whither  he  came 
1670.  So  that  he  has  laboured  in  that  Calling 
Skilfully,  diligently,  constantly,  Religiously, 
Seventy  years.  A  rare  instance  of  Piety, 
Health,  Strength,  Serviceableness.  The  Well- 
fare  of  the  Province  was  much  upon  his  spirit. 
He  abominated  Perriwigs." 

That  Cheever  was  in  truth  an  excellent 
teacher  may  be  accepted  from  the  fact  that 
he  had  Cotton  Mather  ready  at  twelve  to  enter 
Harvard  College.  And  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  one  fault  of  the  lad  was  "  idleness." 
Warning  his  son  against  this  fault,  Cotton 
Mather  wrote,  the  "  thing  that  occasioned  me 
very  much  idle  time  was  the  Distance  of  my 
Father's  Habitation  from  the  School;  which 
caused  him  out  of  compassion  for  my  Tender 
and  Weakly  constitution  to  keep  me  at  home 
in  the  Winter.  However,  I  then  much  em- 
ployed myself  in  Church  History;  and  when 
the  Summer  arrived  I  so  plied  my  business, 
that  thro'  the  Blessing  of  God  upon  my  en- 
deavours, at  the  Age  of  little  more  than  eleven 
years  I  had  composed  many  Latin  exercises, 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         169 


both  in  prose  and  verse,  and  could  speak  Latin 
so  readily,  that  I  could  write  notes  of  sermons 
of  the  English  preacher  in  it.  I  had  converse  I 
with  Cato,  Corderius,  Terence,  Tully,  Ovid  and 
Virgil.  I  had  made  Epistles  and  Themes;  pre- 
senting my  first  Theme  to  my  Master,  without 
his  requiring  or  expecting  as  yet  any  such 
thing  of  me;  whereupon  he  complimented  me 
Laudabilis  Diligent  la  tua  [Your  diligence  de- 
serves praise].  I  had  gone  through  a  great 
part  of  the  New  Testament  in  Greek,  I  had  read 
considerably  in  Socrates  and  Homer,  and  I  had 
made  some  entrance  in  my  Hebrew  grammar. 
And  I  think  before  I  came  to  fourteen,  I  com- 
posed Hebrew  exercises  and  Ran  thro'  the 
other  Sciences,  that  Academical  Students  ordi- 
narily fall  upon." 

In  a  later  chapter  we  shall  discuss  at  some 
length  the  rules  and  regulations,  the  studies 
and  the  social  life  which,  all  together,  consti- 
tuted a  highly  important  formative  influence 
in  the  life  of  this  and  the  other  Puritan  youth 
who  went  to  Harvard.  Suffice  it,  therefore,  in 
this  place  to  say  that  Cotton  Mather  was  put 
through  the  mill  duly  and  was  able  in  1G78  to 
present  himself  for  the  bachelor's  degree,  being 
at  that  time  the  youngest  who  had  ever  ap- 
plied for  it.    This  fact  it  was,  which  added  to 


170  St.  Botolph's  Town 

his  illustrious  ancestry,  inspired  President 
Oakes  to  single  him  out  at  Commencemcent  for 
the  following  eulogy  delivered  in  sounding- 
Latin:  "  The  next  youth  is  named  Cotton 
Mather.  What  a  name!  Or  rather,  dear 
friends,  I  should  have  said  '  what  names.'  Of 
his  reverend  father,  the  most  watchful  of 
guardians,  the  most  distinguished  Fellow  of 
the  College  I  will  say  nothing,  for  I  dare  not 
praise  him  to  his  face.  But  should  this  youth 
bring  back  among  us  the  piety,  the  learning, 
the  sound  sense,  the  prudence,  the  elegant  ac- 
complishment and  the  gravity  of  his  very  rev- 
erend grandfathers,  John  Cotton  and  Richard 
Mather,  he  will  have  done  his  highest  duty.  I 
have  no  slight  hope  that  in  this  youth  there 
shall  live  again,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name, 
Cotton  and  Mather.  ' ' 

Can  you  wonder  that  a  boy  of  sixteen,  thus 
conspicuously  praised  at  the  very  entrance 
upon  serious  life,  felt  himself  to  be  a  person  of 
considerable  importance  in  his  community,  a 
man  born  to  sustain  a  theological  dynasty? 
Of  course  the  ministry  was  the  profession  for 
which  he  was  destined,  but,  for  some  seven 
years  after  matriculation,  he  followed  the  call- 
ing of  a  tutor  because  he  was  afflicted  with  a 
tendency  to  stammer.    Then  he  began  the  study 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         171 

of  medicine.  Soon  after  this  he  was  advised 
to  practise  speaking  with  "  dilated  delibera- 
tion," which  he  did  so  successfully  as  com- 
pletely to  overcome  the  impediment  which  had 
bothered  him  and,  possessing  already  every 
educational  qualification  as  a  preacher,  he  was 
thus  able  (in  May,  1685)  to  become  the  asso- 
ciate of  his  father  in  the  charge  of  the  church 
in  North  Square.  Before  accepting  this  trust 
he  had  kept  many  days  of  fasting  and  prayer, 
for  he  had  long  desired  remotely  to  emulate 
that  Eabbi  mentioned  in  the  Talmud  whose  face 
was  black  by  reason  of  his  fasting.  The  fasts 
observed  by  Cotton  Mather  throughout  his  life 
were  so  frequent  that  his  son  observes  of  him 
in  his  funeral  sermon  "  that  he  thought  himself 
starved  unless  he  fasted  once  a  month!  " 

Such  then  was  the  Mather  to  whom  the  cele- 
brated Eliot  had  extended,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two,  the  fellowship  of  the  churches !  Ten  days 
after  coming  into  this  high  estate  the  young 
parson  was  present  at  a  "  private  Fast  "  in 
the  home  of  Samuel  Sewall,  an  occasion  which 
happily  supplies  us  with  an  authentic  glimpse 
of  the  manners  of  the  times.  For  Sewall 
writes:  "  The  Magistrates  .  .  .  with  their 
wives  here.  Mr.  Eliot  prayed,  Mr.  Willard 
preached.     I  am  afraid  of  thy  judgments.  — 


172  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Text  Mather  gave.  Mr.  Allen  prayed;  cessa- 
tion half  an  hour.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  prayed ; 
Mr.  Mather  preached,  Ps.  79.  9.  Mr.  Moodey 
prayed  about  an  hour  and  half;  Sung  the  79th 
Psalm  from  the  8th  to  the  End;  distributed 
some  Biskets  &  Beer,  Cider,  Wine.  The  Lord 
hear  in  Heaven  his  dwelling  place." 

But  of  course  a  young  minister  of  that  day 
—  as  of  this  —  must  very  soon,  if  only  in  self- 
defence,  take  unto  himself  a  wife.  Cotton 
Mather  was  already  matrimonially  minded :  he 
had  begun  to  ask  "  the  guidance  and  blessing 
of  God  in  what  concerns  the  change  of  my  con- 
dition in  the  world  from  Single  to  married, 
whereunto  I  have  now  many  invitations." 
These  last  words  we  must  not  take  as  an  evi- 
dence of  Leap  Year  activity  in  his  parish,  but 
rather  as  meaning  that  the  young  parson  de- 
sired to  enter  into  the  state  of  matrimony  but 
had  not  as  yet  met  the  girl  whose  charms  should 
draw  him  thither.  His  attitude  of  mind  at  this 
stage  is  singularly  like  that  of  the  pure  young 
woman  of  our  own  time  whose  heart  is  still 
untouched,  —  and  it  is  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  pronounced  dislike  with  which  young  men 
of  to-day  regard  marriage  per  se. 

The  girl  was  now  sure  to  arrive,  and  so  it 
came    about    that    the    year    1686  —  troublous 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         173 

enough  to  New  England,  because  Edward  Ran- 
dolph and  Joseph  Dudley  had  succeeded  in 
wresting  away  the  Charter  —  was  a  decidedly 
happy  one  for  Cotton  Mather.  His  wooing  was 
very  godly,  as  it  was  bound  to  be;  but  it  re- 
sulted in  his  bringing  home  as  a  wife  Abigail, 
daughter  of  the  Honourable  Colonel  Phillips 
of  Charlestown.  On  his  wedding  day  he  got 
up  early  to  ponder ;  but  in  spite  of  his  ponder- 
ing he  reached  Charlestown  ahead  of  time  and 
had  to  put  in  an  hour  or  so  in  the  garden  with 
his  Bible  while  Abigail  was  being  arrayed  in 
her  wedding  finery.  Two  Sundays  afterwards 
he  preached  at  his  own  church  in  Boston  on 
Divine  Delights.  This  was  the  very  Sunday 
when  Mr.  "Willard  "  prayed  not  for  the  Gov- 
ernour. ' ' 

The  implications  of  this  just-quoted  entry  in 
Sewall's  invaluable  Diary  are  enormous.  Now 
that  we  have  married  off  Cotton  Mather,  let 
us  turn  aside  briefly  to  consider  them.  From 
the  settlement  of  the  Colony  it  had  been  gov- 
erned under  a  royal  charter  granted,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  the  governor  and  Company  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  in  1629.  Under  this  none 
but  church  members  had  been  freemen,  and  as 
these  freemen  elected  all  political  officers  and 
developed  their  own  system  of  law  it  is  clear 


174  St.  Botolph's  Town 

that  the  government  was  much  more  nearly  a 
theocracy  than  a  dependency  of  the  crown. 
Tacitly,  England  had  agreed  to  this  state  of 
affairs,  but  this  was  only  because  she  had  been 
too  busy  with  Civil  Wars  and  internal  dissen- 
sions to  do  anything  else.  For  the  sovereign 
did  not  forget  by  any  means  that  New  England 
was  theoretically  the  private  property  of  the 
crown  by  virtue  of  its  discovery  at  the  hands 
of  the  Cabots,  who  had  been  fitted  out  with 
crown  money.  What  rights  the  Colonists  had 
to  the  land  came,  it  was  argued,  from  the  Char- 
ter; at  best,  therefore,  their  positions  could 
be  compared  only  to  that  of  tenants  on  a  pri- 
vate estate.  From  the  very  beginning,  how- 
ever, the  Charter  had  been  contested  by  some 
gentlemen  who  maintained  that  it  had  been 
given  originally  in  violation  of  previous  royal 
grants  to  them.  Among  these  contestants  was 
one  Gorges,  a  name  we  readily  recognize  as 
potential  in  more  way  than  one. 

By  the  time  Charles  II  ascended  the  throne 
New  England  had  become  so  prosperous  that 
the  opponents  of  the  Charter  could  not  let  the 
matter  longer  alone,  and  there  appeared  in 
Boston  as  their  agent,  Edward  Randolph,  "  the 
evil  genius  of  New  England,"  with  a  letter 
requiring  the  governor  and  Assistants  of  Mas- 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         175 

sachusetts  at  once  to  send  representatives  to 
England,  there  to  answer  the  claims  of  those 
who  contested  their  rights.  The  contest  thus 
begun  lasted  until  1684,  a  period  of  nearly  nine 
years,  during  which  Eandolph  made  no  less 
than  eight  voyages  to  New  England,  the  colo- 
nists sending  back  to  London  meanwhile  innu- 
merable long-drawn  petitions. 

But  the  blow  fell  at  last  and  on  June  18, 
1684,  the  Court  of  Chancery  decreed  that  the 
Charter  should  be  vacated.  In  the  Colony  it- 
self there  had  appeared,  by  this  time,  a  party 
which  favoured  submission  to  royal  authority. 
This  party  had  been  built  up  chiefly  by  the 
exertions  of  Randolph  and  at  its  head  was 
Joseph  Dudley,  a  son  of  the  Colony's  second 
governor.  He,  as  "  president  of  New  Eng- 
land," was  now  named  to  succeed  Simon  Brad- 
street,  the  last  governor  elected  by  the  people 
of  the  colony,  —  and  the  last  survivor,  as  well, 
of  the  magistrates,  who,  nearly  sixty  years 
before,  had  founded  the  government. 

It  was  a  goodly  heritage  for  which  Randolph 
and  his  tools  had  fought.  From  the  day  that 
"Winthrop  landed,  the  Puritan  State  of  his  ideal 
had  risen  steadily,  and  Boston,  its  chief  town, 
was  now  a  thriving  and  well-built  settlement. 
Moreover,  it  was  distinctly  an  English  town, 


176  St.  Botolph's  Town 

for  the  migration  had  been  unmixed,  and,  va- 
ried as  were  the  religious  beliefs  of  its  inhab- 
itants, they  agreed  perfectly  in  their  love  of 
English  names  for  their  streets,  English  flow- 
ers for  their  gardens,  English  furniture  for 
their  rooms  and  English  architecture  for  their 
homes.  But  they  had  few  books,  no  amuse- 
ments, and  no  intellectual  interest  except  relig- 
ion. "  The  people  of  Boston,"  as  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge  remarks  in  his  excellent  study  of  that 
city's  rise  and  development,  "  practically  went 
from  work  to  religion  and  from  religion  to  work 
without  anything  to  break  the  monotony  ex- 
cept trouble  with  England  and  wars  with  the 
savages.  .  .  .  And  now  the  charter,  under 
which  they  had  enjoyed  power  and  exercised 
independence  was  taken  from  them." 

If  we  read  Sewall's  account  of  those  days  in 
the  spring  of  1686  with  this  great  impending 
change  in  mind  the  brief  entries  become  dra- 
matic in  the  extreme.  He  tells  us  how  the  Rose 
frigate  arrived  in  Nantasket  on  the  14th  of 
May;  how  Randolph  came  to  town  by  eight  in 
the  morning  and  took  coach  for  Roxbury, 
where  Dudley  lived;  and  how,  with  other  mag- 
istrates, he  himself  was  summoned  to  see  the 
judgment  against  the  charter  with  the  great 
seal  of  England  affixed.     He  tells  how,  on  the 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         177 

following  Sunday,  Randolph  came  to  the  Old 
South  Church,  where  Mr.  Willard,  in  his 
prayer,  made  no  mention  of  governor  or  gov- 
ernment; but  spoke  as  if  all  were  changing  or 
changed.  He  tells  how,  the  next  day  the  Gen- 
eral Court  assembled,  and  how  Joseph  Dudley, 
temporarily  made  President  of  New  England, 
exhibited  the  condemnation  of  the  Charter  and 
his  own  commission,  how  the  old  magistrates 
began  to  make  some  formal  answer  and  how 
Dudley  refused  to  treat  with  them  as  a  court. 
There  is  a  note  of  very  real  pathos  in  Sewall's 
picture  of  that  sorrowful  group  of  old  magis- 
trates, who,  when  Dudley  was  gone,  decided 
that  there  was  "  no  room  "  for  a  protest: 
"  The  foundations  being  gone  what  can  the 
righteous  do?  " 

So,  for  seven  months,  Joseph  Dudley  was 
President  of  the  Provisional  Government  of 
New  England,  and  during  those  months  the 
birthdays  of  the  king  and  queen  were  celebrated 
by  the  royalists  in  Boston,  and  to  Episcopa- 
lians was  granted  the  right  to  hold  services  in 
the  east  end  of  the  Town  House.  The  Puritan 
Pepys,  as  Sewall  has  well  been  called,  duly 
notes  these  developments,  telling  us  that  on 
Sunday,  May  30,  he  sang  "the  141  Psalm  .  .  . 
exceedingly  suited  to  the  day.    Wherein  there 


178  St.  Botolph's  Town 

is  to  be  worship  according  to  the  Church  of 
England,  as  'tis  called,  in  the  Town  House,  by 
countenance  of  Authority."  In  August  Sewall 
has  grave  doubts  as  to  whether  he  can  con- 
scientiously serve  in  the  militia  under  a  flag 
in  which  the  cross,  cut  out  by  Endicott,  has 
been  replaced;  and  three  months  later  he  an- 
swers his  own  question  by  resigning  as  captain 
of  the  South  Company.  A  few  Saturdays  be- 
fore this  the  queen's  birthday  had  been  cele- 
brated with  drums,  bonfires  and  huzzas,  thereby 
causing  Mr.  Willard  to  express,  next  day, 
"  great  grief  in's  Prayer  for  the  Profanation 
of  the  Sabbath  last  night." 

Then,  on  Sunday,  December  19,  while  Sewall 
was  reading  to  his  family  an  exposition  of 
Habakkuk,  he  heard  a  great  gun  or  two,  which 
made  him  think  Sir  Edmund  Andros  might  be 
come.  Such  proved  to  be  the  case.  The  first 
governor  sent  out  from  England  had  arrived 
"in  a  Scarlet  Coat  laced."  That  day  Joseph 
Dudley  went  to  listen  to  Mr.  Willard  preach, 
and  had  the  chagrin  of  hearing  that  personage 
say,  "  he  was  fully  persuaded  and  confident 
God  would  not  forget  the  Faith  of  those  who 
came  first  to  New  England." 

Between  sermons  the  President  went  down 
the   harbour   to   welcome    Sir   Edmund.      The 


H           ~**    K 

B    V  ^ 

^B  °  *  v^^^Hy        -  vt     n^B^H 

IT  "3  HL  ~  TiffiB 

^K*  ""-^(i   '  ■K-.^^j        ft '     <j  i 

SIR    EDMUND    ANDROS 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         179 

next  afternoon  the  king's  appointee  landed  in 
state,  and  was  escorted  to  the  Town  House  by 
eight  militia  companies.  Here  a  commission 
was  read,  declaring  his  power  to  suspend  coun- 
cillors and  to  appoint  others,  —  and  vesting  the 
legislative  power  in  him  and  his  Council  thus 
appointed.  Then  he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance 
and  stood  by,  with  his  hat  on,  while  eight  coun- 
cillors were  sworn.  The  same  day  he  de- 
manded accommodation  in  one  of  the  meeting- 
houses for  the  services  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land! 

Andros  was  a  gentleman  of  good  family,  had 
served  with  distinction  in  the  army,  had  mar- 
ried a  lady  of  rank  and  for  three  years  had 
very  successfully  ruled  as  governor  of  New 
York.  When  James  came  to  the  throne  he 
quite  naturally  turned  to  him  as  a  person  well 
fitted,  by  his  previous  American  experience  — 
as  well  as  by  his  well-known  personal  devotion 
to  the  Stuarts  —  to  preside  acceptably  over  the 
New  England  colonies.  But,  New  York  was  not 
Boston  then  any  more  than  to-day  and,  as  ill 
luck  would  have  it,  Andros  from  the  very  start, 
made  mistakes  which  soon  caused  him  to  be  one 
of  the  best-hated  men  Massachusetts  had  ever 
known.  Scarcely  had  he  set  foot  in  the  town 
when  he  proceeded,  as  we  have  seen,  to  assail 


180  St.  Botolph's  Town 

the  religious  sensibilities  of  the  Puritans.  All 
forms  and  ceremonies,  symbols  and  signs  were 
to  them  marks  of  the  Beast,  and  it  was  a  cruel 
shock,  after  what  they  had  suffered  to.  get  away 
from  the  Church  of  England,  to  have  a  priest 
in  a  surplice  conducting  in  their  Town  House 
a  service  hateful  to  them,  to  see  men  buried 
according  to  the  prayer-book  and  to  learn  that 
marriages,  which  they  had  made  a  purely  civil 
contract,  must  henceforth  be  solemnized  by  the 
rites  of  the  church.  Even  worse  was  the  en- 
forced celebration  of  royal  anniversaries  and 
the  reappearance  of  old  sports  upon  certain 
holidays. 

Samuel  Sewall  was  the  type  of  a  class  of 
well-to-do  Puritans,  who  were,  on  the  whole, 
inclined  to  be  submissive  to  the  new  govern- 
ment, but  he  shows  himself  to  have  been  hurt 
in  a  tender  spot  by  many  of  the  things  Andros 
did.  His  Diary  may  well  enough  be  held  to 
reflect  the  deep  feeling  of  many.  As  early  as 
November,  1685,  he  sees  the  change  coming 
and  records  that  "  the  Ministers  Come  to  the 
Court  and  complain  against  a  Dancing  Master 
who  seeks  to  set  up  here  and  hath  mixt  dances, 
and  his  time  of  Meeting  is  Lecture-Day;  and 
'tis  reported  he  should  say  that  by  one  Play 
he  could  teach  more  Divinity  than  Mr.  Willard 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         181 

or  the  Old  Testament.  .  .  .  Mr.  Mather  [In- 
crease] struck  at  the  Root,  speaking  against 
mixt  Dances."  Early  in  September,  1686,  we 
read,  "  Mr.  Shrimpton  .  .  .  and  others  come 
in  a  Coach  from  Roxbury  about  9  aclock  or 
past,  singing  as  they  come,  being  inflamed  with 
Drink:  At  Justice  Morgan's  they  stop  and 
drink  Healths,  curse,  swear,  talk  profanely  and 
baudily  to  the  great  disturbance  of  the  Town 
and  grief  of  good  people.  Such  high-handed 
wickedness  has  hardly  been  heard  of  before  in 
Boston." 

With  ill-concealed  exultation  the  old  diarist 
notes  that  the  people,  for  the  most  part,  refused 
to  observe  Christmas  and  the  other  imported 
holidays,  but  kept  the  shops  open,  brought  fire- 
wood into  the  town  and  generally  went  on  with 
their  business  as  under  the  old  regime.  But 
some  annoyances  they  could  not  avoid.  On  the 
"Sabbath  Feb.  6,  1686-7,"  he  writes,  "Be- 
tween half  hour  after  eleven  and  half  hour 
after  twelve  at  Noon  many  Scores  of  great 
guns  fired  at  the  Castle  and  Tower  suppose 
upon  account  of  the  King's  entering  on  the 
third  year  of  his  Reign.  .  .  .  This  day  the 
Lord's  Super  was  administered  at  the  middle 
and  North  Church;  the  rattling  of  the  Guns 
during  almost  all   the  time  gave  them  great 


182  St.  Botolph's  Town 

disturbance.  'Twas  never  so  in  Boston  be- 
fore." Again  hfl  says  on  "  February  15 
1686-7,  .Jos.  Maylem  carries  a  Cock  at  his  back 
with  a  bell  in's  hand,  in  the  Alain  Street;  sev- 
eral followed  hi  in  blindfold,  and  under  pre- 
tence of  striking  him  or's  cock,  with  great  Cart- 
whips  strike  passengers  and  make  great  dis- 
turbance." By  countenancing  such  practices 
as  these  did  Andros  inflame  every  possible 
prejudice  against  the  crown  he  fain  would 
represent. 

But  the  horse-play  of  Shrove  Tuesday,  with 
its  suggestions  to  the  Puritans  of  Papacy  and 
the  hated  days  of  Laud,  was  only  a  forerunner 
of  what  Andros  really  purposed :  i.  e.  a  Church 
in  which  the  service  of  his  king  and  country 
should  be  fittingly  carried  on!  Pending  the 
erection  of  such  an  edifice  Sir  Edmund  deter- 
mined that,  regardless  of  the  wishes  of  the  pop- 
ulace, he  would  have  his  prayer-book  service 
read  in  one  of  the  three  meeting-houses  of  the 
town  and  on  "  Wednesday  March  23  "  Sewall 
tells  us,  "  the  (iovr  sends  Mr.  Randolph  for 
ye  keys  to  our  Meetingh.  yt  may  say  Prayers 
there.  Mr.  Eliot,  Frary,  Oliver,  Savage  Davis 
and  self  wait  on  his  Excellency;  shew  that  ye 
Land  and  House  is  ours,  and  that  we  can't 
consent  to  part  with  it  to  such  use;   exhibit  an 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         183 


extract  of  Mrs.  Norton's  Deed  [this  lady  was 
the  widow  of  the  Reverend  John  Norton,  had 
owned  the  land  upon  which  the  church  was 
built '  and  had  giyen  the  same  in  trust  for  ever 
"  for  the  erecting  of  a  house  for  their  assem- 
bling themselves  together  publiquely  to  wor- 
ship God."]  and  How  'twas  built  by  particu- 
lar persons  as  Hull,  Oliver  £100  a  piece  &c." 
All  this  appears  to  have  been  of  non-avail,  how- 
ever, for  three  days  later,  the  Diary  sadly  re- 
cords: "  The  Govr  has  service  in  ye  South 
Meetinghouse;  Goodm.  Needham  (the  Sex- 
ton) tho'  had  resolv'd  to  ye  Contrary,  was 
prevail'd  upon  to  Ring  ye  Bell  and  open  ye 
door  at  ye  Governour's  Comand,  one  Smith 
and  Hill,  Joiner  and  Shoemaker,  being  very 
busy  about  it.  Mr.  Jno.  Usher  was  there, 
whether  at  ye  very  begining,  or  no,  I  can't 
tell." 

Yet  a  year  later  even  Sewall  has  so  far 
capitulated  as  to  be  willing  to  attend  part  of 
a  Church  of  England  service  in  this  same 
church.  The  occasion,  to  be  sure,  was  one  to 
make  a  tender-hearted  man  forget  enmities  for 
the  nonce,  for  it  was  the  "  Funeral  of  ye  Lady 
Andros,  I  having  been  invited  by  ye  Clark  of 
ye  South-Company.     Between  7  and  8  Lychrs 

1  See  "  Romance  of  Old  New  England  Churches." 


184  St.  Botolph's  Town 

[torches]  illuminating  ye  cloudy  air  The  Corps 
was  carried  into  the  Herse  drawn  by  six 
Horses.  The  Souldiers  making  a  Guard  from 
ye  Governour's  House  down  ye  Prison  Lane 
to  ye  South-M.  House,  there  taken  out  and  car- 
ried in  at  ye  western  dore  and  set  in  ye  Alley 
before  ye  pulpit  with  six  Mourning  women  by 
it.  House  made  light  with  candles  and 
Torches ;  was  a  great  noise  and  clamor  to  keep 
people  out  of  ye  House,  yt  might  not  rush  in 
too  soon.  I  went  home,  where  about  nine  a 
clock  I  heard  ye  Bell  toll  again  for  ye  Funeral. 
It  seems  Mr.  Ratcliff's  Text  was,  Cry,  all  flesh 
is  Grass."  Three  years  later  an  Episcopal 
church,  the  King's  Chapel,  was  built  on  the 
spot  where  it  now  stands.  But  by  this  time  Sir 
Edmund  Andros  had  paid  the  penalty  of  the 
affront  he  had  put  upon  the  Puritans  by  for- 
cing them  to  lend  their  cherished  meeting-house 
for  a  service  utterly  obnoxious  to  them. 

Besides  the  church  affront  two  others  even 
more  vital  were  offered  by  this  choice  of  the 
English  crown.  One  of  these  was  his  assump- 
tion of  the  power  of  taxation  without  their  con- 
sent; the  other  was  the  laying  down  of  the 
principle  that  all  titles  to  lands  had  been 
vacated  along  with  the  charter  and  that  who- 
ever wanted  a  sound  title  must  get  his  claim 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         185 

confirmed  by  Sir  Edmund,  —  and  pay  for  it. 
In  short,  as  Cotton  Mather  said,  "  all  was  done 
that  might  be  expected  from  a  Kirk,  Except  the 
Bloody  Part.  But  that  was  coming  on."  He 
and  his  father  honestly  believed,  as  did  many 
other  good  people  of  New  England  that  their 
heads  were  in  danger!  Increase  Mather  ac- 
cordingly opposed  Andros  in  every  possible 
way  beseeching  God  the  while  to  "  send  Revi- 
ving News  out  of  England."  As  if  in  answer 
to  this  prayer  James  II  issued  in  April,  1687, 
his  Declaration  of  Indulgence  which,  though 
designed,  of  course,  to  relieve  the  Catholics, 
was  very  grateful  to  Dissenters  as  well  assur- 
ing them,  as  it  did,  of  entire  freedom  to  meet 
and  serve  God  in  their  own  way. 

So  full  of  joy  were  the  ministers  of  New 
England  that  they  wished  to  hold  a  public 
thanksgiving  and  when  Sir  Edmund  forbade 
this,  with  threats  of  military  force,  they  drew 
up,  on  the  motion  of  Increase  Mather,  an  ad- 
dress of  thanks  to  the  king.  This  it  was 
thought  best  to  intrust  to  some  "  well  qualified 
person  "  who  "  might  by  the  Help  of  such 
Protestant  Dissenters  as  the  King  began,  upon 
Political  Views,  to  cast  a  fair  Aspect  upon, 
Obtain  some  Relief  to  the  Growing  Distresses 
of  the  Country:  and  Mr.  Mather  was  the  Per- 


186  St.  Botolph's  Town 

son  that  was  pitch 'd  upon."  Since  1685  this 
busy  minister  had  been  president  of  Harvard 
College  as  well  as  one  of  the  first  citizens  of 
Boston.  Randolph  hated  him  violently  and  was 
determined  to  prevent  his  embarkation,  if  pos- 
sible. So,  when  his  church  had  released  him 
and  the  college  had  bidden  him  God  Speed  he 
had  to  slip  off,  in  disguise,  in  order  to  avoid 
arrest!  After  being  concealed  at  what  was 
afterwards  the  Pratt  House  in  Chelsea  he  was 
carried  by  boat,  on  a  night  early  in  April,  1688, 
to  the  ship,  President,  lying  outside  the  bay. 
Safely  aboard  he  sailed  away  to  England, 
charged  with  the  enormous  task  of  persuading 
a  Catholic  king  to  restore,  of  his  own  free  will, 
the  vacated  charter  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Mathers  feared  that  it  was  James's  pur- 
pose to  set  up  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in 
America,  and  Increase  Mather  was  secretly 
determined,  therefore,  to  bring  back  into  power 
the  theocratic  democracy  of  the  fathers.  As  a 
means  to  this  end  he  hoped  to  obtain  for  the 
College,  whose  head  he  had  the  honour  to  be, 
a  royal  charter  by  which  it  should  be  perma- 
nently secured  to  the  Calvinists  who  had 
founded  and  cherished  it. 

King  James  received  him  graciously  enough, 
but  answered  his  requests  only  in  fair-sounding 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         187 

promises.  He  could,  indeed,  do  little  else  for 
his  own  seat  was  far  from  secure;  and,  in  less 
than  a  year  from  the  time  Increase  Mather 
sailed  from  Boston  William  and  Mary  were 
proclaimed  rulers  of  England  and  its  terri- 
tories. Sewall,  who  had  gone  to  join  Mather 
in  London,  gives  us  a  vivid  account  of  these 
rapid  and  far-reaching  changes. 

In  Boston  several  very  important  steps  were 
taken  even  before  the  accession  of  William  and 
Mary  was  established  as  a  fact.  For  on  April 
4,  1689,  there  came  over  a  young  man  named 
John  Winslow,  bearing  with  him  a  copy  of  the 
Declaration  issued  by  the  Prince  of  Orange 
upon  his  landing  in  England.  Sir  Edmund 
Andros  would  not  listen  to  Winslow  and  an- 
grily committed  him  to  prison  "  for  bringing 
traitorous  and  treasonable  libels  and  papers 
of  news."  But  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
were  willing  to  take  their  chance  on  William's 
turning  out  the  king  he  had  proclaimed  himself 
to  be  and,  on  April  18,  Boston  rose  in  arms  and 
seized  the  chief  magistrates. 

This  was  perhaps  the  most  astounding  inci- 
dent in  the  whole  history  of  Boston.  There 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  plan  to  seize 
the  reins  of  government  or  to  rise  up  in  arms. 
Yet.it  was  just  this  which  was  done.    "  I  knew 


188  St.  Botolph's  Town 

not  anything  of  what  was  intended  nntil  it  was 
begun,"  writes  an  eye-witness,  "  yet  being  at 
the  north  end  of  the  town  where  I  saw  boys 
running  along  the  streets  with  clubs  in  their 
hands,  encouraging  one  another  to  fight,  I  be- 
gan to  mistrust  what  was  intended;  and,  ha- 
sting towards  the  Town  Dock  I  soon  saw  men 
running  for  their  arms,  but  before  I  got  to  the 
Eed  Lion  I  was  told  that  Captain  George  and 
the  Master  of  the  Frigate  [upon  which  Andros 
had  tried  to  escape]  were  seized  and  secured 
in  Mr.  Colman's  house,  at  the  North  End;  and 
when  I  came  to  the  Town  Dock  I  understood 
that  Bullivant  and  some  others  of  them  were 
laid  hold  of,  and  then,  immediately  the  drums 
began  to  beat  and  the  people  hastened  and  ran, 
some  with  and  some  for  arms.  Young  Dudley 
and  Colonel  Lidget  with  some  difficulty  attained 
to  the  Fort." 

The  fort,  in  which  Andros  had  promptly  in- 
trenched himself,  was  at  the  summit  of  Fort 
Hill,  on  the  site  of  what  is  now  Fort  Hill 
Square.  This  hill  was  formerly  one  of  the 
three  great  hills  of  "  Treamount  "  (Copp's 
Hill  and  Beacon  Hill  being  the  two  others)  and 
ascended  sharply  from  the  foot  of  what  is  now 
Milk  street.  From  this  safe  place  Andros  sent 
forth  messengers,  requesting  the  four  minis- 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         189 

ters  and  one  or  two  other  persons  of  impor- 
tance in  the  town  to  come  to  him  for  consulta- 
tion. But  they  refused  on  the  ground  that  they 
did  not  think  such  action  safe. 

For,  "  by  this  time,"  as  our  eye-witness  con- 
tinues, "  all  the  persons  who  they  [the  revo- 
lutionists] concluded  not  to  be  for  their  side 
were  seized  and  secured.  .  .  .  All  the  com- 
panies were  soon  rallied  together  at  the  Town 
House,  where  assembled  Captain  Winthrop, 
Shrimpton,  Page  and  many  other  substantial 
men  to  consult  matters:  in  which  time  the  old 
Governor  [Bradstreet]  came  among  them  at 
whose  appearance  there  was  a  great  shout  by 
the  soldiers." 

The  self-restraint  exercised  both  by  the  peo- 
ple and  by  Andros  on  this  occasion  seem  to  me 
very  remarkable.  Both  sides  were  full  of  de- 
sire to  fight,  but  neither  was  quite  sure  just 
how  things  stood  in  England  and  so  let  wisdom 
be  the  better  part  of  valour.  In  the  Assembly 
the  following  paper  was  drawn  up  and  sent  to 
Andros : 


"  At  the  Town  House  in  Boston, 
"  April  18,  1689. 
"  To  Sib  Edmund  Andkos, 
"  Sib:    Ourselves  and  many  others,  the  in- 


190  St  Botolph's  Town 

habitants  of  this  town  and  the  places  adjacent, 
being  surprised  with  the  people's  sudden  ta- 
king up  of  arms;  in  the  first  motion,  whereof 
we  were  wholly  ignorant,  being  driven  by  the 
present  accident,  are  necessitated  to  acquaint 
your  Excellency  that  for  the  quieting  and  se- 
curing of  the  people  inhabiting  in  this  country 
from  the  imminent  dangers  they  many  ways  lie 
open  and  disposed  to,  and  tendering  your  own 
safety,  we  judge  it  necessary  you  forthwith 
surrender  and  deliver  up  the  Government  and 
Fortifications  to  be  preserved  and  disposed  ac- 
cording to  order  and  direction  from  the  Crown 
of  England,  which  suddenly  is  expected  may 
arrive;  promising  all  security  from  violence 
to  yourself  or  any  of  your  gentlemen  or  soul- 
diers  in  person  and  estate;  otherwise  we  are 
assured  they  will  endeavour  the  taking  of  the 
Fortification  by  storm,  if  any  opposition  be 
made :  — 

Simon  Bradstreet,        J.  Nelson, 
John  Richards,  Wait  Winthrop, 

Elisha  Cooke,  William  Stoughton, 

Js.  Addington,  Thomas  Danforth, 

John  Foster,  Samuel  Shrimpton, 

Peter  Sergeant,  William  Browne, 

David  Waterhouse,       Bartholo.  Gedney." 
Adam  Winthrop, 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         191 

At  first  Andros  refused  to  do  what  was  here 
demanded,  but,  after  a  little  reflection,  he  com- 
plied and  Captain  Fairweather,  with  his  sol- 
diers proceeded  to  take  peaceable  possession 
of  the  fort.  The  deposed  governor  with  his 
friends  was  then  marched  with  scant  ceremony 
to  the  Town  House,  from  the  balcony  of  which 
William's  Declaration  had  already  been  read 
to  the  assembled  crowd.  Upon  the  demand  of 
the  country  people,  who  had  come  armed  into 
the  town,  he  was  bound  and  straightway  sent 
back  as  a  prisoner  to  the  fort  he  had  just  sur- 
rendered. The  people,  too,  were  all  for  resu- 
ming the  vacated  charter,  but  it  was  finally  de- 
cided that  the  old  officers  of  the  government 
of  1686  should  assume  a  sort  of  conservative 
control  until  more  news  should  be  received 
from  England.  The  day  following  this  ar- 
rangement a  ship  arrived  proclaiming  that 
William  and  Mary  were  indeed  king  and 
queen.  The  writers  of  the  time  pronounce 
this  "  the  most  joyful  news  ever  before  re- 
ceived in  Boston."  Certainly  the  Puritans 
were  unwontedly  gay  in  celebrating  it,  "  civil 
and  military  officers,  merchants  and  principal 
gentlemen  of  the  Town  and  Country,  being  on 
horseback,  the  regiment  of  the  Town  and  many 
companies  of  horses  and  foot  from  the  Country 


192  St.  Botolph's  Town 

appearing  in  arms ;  a  grand  entertainment  was 
prepared  in  the  Town-house  and  wine  was 
served  out  to  the  soldiers!  " 

All  that  summer  and  the  following  autumn 
Sir  Edmund  Andros,  Joseph  Dudley  and  "  the 
rest  of  his  crew,"  as  Cotton  Mather  express- 
ively put  it,  were  kept  prisoners.  Some  at- 
tempts at  escape  were  made  by  the  chief  cap- 
tive, and  at  one  time  he  even  got  as  far  as 
Rhode  Island  before  being  retaken.  On  one 
previous  occasion,  he  had  passed  two  guards  in 
the  disguise  of  woman's  clothing,  and  if  he 
had  taken  as  much  care  about  his  boots,  in 
preparing  for  flight,  as  with  the  rest  of  his 
make-up,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  secured 
his  liberty.  The  Provisional  Government  did 
not  keep  him  confined  because  it  wanted  to 
however,  only  because  it  did  not  know  what 
else  to  do  with  him.  We  can  be  sure  the  whole 
town  gave  a  deep  sigh  of  relief  when  an  order 
from  the  king  was  received,  the  following  Feb- 
ruary, that  the  prisoners  should  be  sent  to 
England. 

Meanwhile  Increase  Mather  in  England  had 
been  rapidly  making  friends  with  the  new  sov- 
ereign. At  first  it  even  looked  as  if  he  would 
be  able  to  obtain  the  first  charter  again,  but 
while  the  matter  was  hanging  fire,  the  enemies 


SIR    WILLIAM    PHIPS 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         193 

of  the  old  system  busied  themselves  against 
it.  Yet  if  Mather  failed  to  reinstate  the  old 
charter,  he  did  succeed  in  separating  New  Eng- 
land from  the  other  colonies  and  in  securing 
for  it  a  charter  much  more  liberal  than  was 
granted  to  any  other  colony.  And  while  he 
could  not  prevent  the  provision  of  a  royal  gov- 
ernor equipped  with  a  veto  power,  he  was 
adroit  enough  to  have  the  territories  of  Nova 
Scotia,  Maine  and  Plymouth  annexed  to  Mas- 
sachusetts and  to  gain  a  confirmation  for  all 
the  grants  made  by  the  General  Court.  Also 
he  was  able  practically  to  select  the  new  gov- 
ernor. After  four  years  of  unremitting  effort, 
therefore,  he  sailed  in  March,  1692,  for  New 
England  pretty  well  satisfied  with  himself. 

The  new  governor  was  Sir  William  Phips 
and  his  lieutenant-governor  was  William 
Stoughton,  who  had  been  bred  for  the  church 
and  who  possessed  just  enough  bigotry  to  make 
him  very  acceptable  to  the  clergy.  The  news 
of  the  men  whom  the  elder  Mather  had  caused 
to  be  put  into  office  was  so  glorious  to  the  son, 
who  had  been  watching  and  working  at  home, 
that  he  broke  into  a  shout  of  triumph  when  he 
heard  it:  "  The  time  has  come.  The  set  time 
has  come.  I  am  now  to  receive  an  answer  of 
so  many  prayers.    All  the  counsellor's  of  the 


194  St.  Botolph's  Town 

province  are  of  my  father's  nomination;  and 
my  father-in-law  with  several  related  unto  me, 
and  several  brethren  of  my  own  church  are 
among  them.  The  governor  of  the  province  is 
not  my  enemy  but  one  whom  I  baptized; 
namely  Sir  William  Phips,  one  of  my  own 
flock  and  one  of  my  dearest  friends." 

A  most  romantic  figure  was  this  new  gov- 
ernor. Born  in  the  woods  of  Maine,  one  of  a 
family  of  twenty-six  children,  he  had  early 
been  left  to  pick  up,  as  best  he  could,  his  living 
and  his  scanty  education.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-two  he  came  to  Boston  in  pursuit  of 
the  fortune  he  had  determined  should  be  his 
and,  while  working  at  his  trade  of  carpenter, 
attracted  the  attention  of  a  prosperous  widow. 
This  lady  had  the  advantage  of  him  both  in 
years  and  in  estate,  but  the  marriage  which 
soon  followed  proved  a  fairly  happy  one,  — 
and  it  certainly  helped  Phips  to  launch  out 
into  the  profession  of  ship-builder,  through 
which  he  afterwards  came  to  renown.  On  one 
of  his  voyages  he  heard  of  a  Spanish  treasure- 
ship  which  had  been  sunk  in  the  waters  of  the 
Spanish  main  and,  fired  with  ambition  to  raise 
from  the  deep  the  untold  wealth  the  ship  was 
supposed  to  contain,  he  went  to  London  and, 
young  and  unknown  though  he  was,  managed 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         195 

so  to  plead  his  cause  that  (in  1684)  James  II 
gave  him  an  eighteen-gun  ship  and  ninety-five 
men  with  which  to  make  his  fortune  —  and  the 
king's.  For  two  years  he  cruised  in  the  West 
Indies  without  any  very  striking  success,  but 
he  did  obtain,  during  this  time,  knowledge  of 
the  precise  spot  where  the  treasure-ship  had 
foundered,  nearly  half  a  century  before,  and 
when  he  returned  to  England  he  gave  such  a 
good  account  of  this  to  the  Duke  of  Albermarle 
and  other  courtiers  that  he  managed  to  obtain 
from  them  another  vessel,  on  shares.  This 
time  he  succeeded  in  his  expedition. 

One  wonders  if  Stevenson  had  not  freshly 
read  the  story  of  Phips's  adventures  when  he 
wrote  his  incomparable  Treasure  Island.  Cer- 
tainly in  this  case  history  fairly  rivals  fiction. 
For  Phips's  men  mutinied,  one  poor  fellow  went 
mad  at  the  mere  thought  of  the  wealth  which 
was  to  be  his  if  only  he  would  do  his  duty, 
there  was  a  lot  of  fighting,  much  diplomacy  of 
a  sort  and  through  it  all  the  cleverness  of  a 
born  sea  dog.  But  Phips  accomplished  his 
purpose.  From  the  sunken  galleon  he  raised 
bullion  to  the  value  of  £300,000  together  with 
many  precious  stones.  After  the  shares  had 
been  distributed  according  to  contract  there 
was  about  £20,000  for  his  own  share.    Armed 


196  St.  Botolph's  Town 

with  this,  a  gold  cup  that  the  Duke  of  Alber- 
marle  had  caused  to  be  fashioned  for  his  wife, 
and  reinforced  by  the  rank  of  knight,  the 
Maine  carpenter  was  able  to  sail  in  triumph 
back  to  his  native  New  England.  The  time 
when  he  thus  arrived  was  that  of  Andros, 
and  the  office  bestowed  upon  the  doughty  sailor 
by  James  II  had  been  "  High  Sheriff  of  New 
England."  But  since  Phips  knew  nothing  of 
law  and  could  not  write  plainly,  he  was  not  a 
very  great  success  as  a  sheriff.  He  did  better 
as  head  of  the  expedition  sent  out  in  1690 
against  Port  Royal.  But  he  failed  in  that 
against  Quebec  and  so  happened  to  be  back  in 
England  and  "  out  of  a  job  "  just  at  the  time 
Increase  Mather  wanted  a  promising  person  to 
be  first  governor  of  the  royal  Province  of 
Massachusetts. 

Sir  William  Phips  particularly  recom- 
mended himself  to  the  Mathers  because  they 
saw  in  him  one  whom  the  people  would  respect 
as  self-made,  and  who  would  respect  them  as 
ministers  of  the  Gospel.  Increase  Mather  had 
preached  the  sermon,  away  back  in  1674,  which 
caused  Phips  to  feel  himself  a  sinner  and  seek 
for  enrolment  among  the  righteous  of  the 
state;  Increase  Mather  also  had  now  named 
him  for  the  office  which  crowned  his  worldly 


Cotton  Mather 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         197 

ambition.  Why,  then,  might  not  Increase 
Mather  expect,  through  Sir  William  Phips  and 
a  new  charter,  which  gave  the  governor  more 
power  than  he  had  ever  had  under  the  former 
one,  to  bring  back  the  good  old  days  of  the 
theocracy  f  Unhappily  for  his  hopes  an  unex- 
pected influence  now  entered  into  the  life  of 
the  people.  And  it  was  because  Cotton  Mather 
was  so  intimate  a  part  of  this  that  the  Mather 
dynasty  finally  fell. 

The  great  tragedy  of  witchcraft !  This  and 
the  part  Cotton  Mather  played  in  it  did  for  the 
theocracy,  I  repeat,  what  no  mortal  power 
could  undo.  Long  before  the  time  of  the  great 
outbreak  at  Salem,  which  constituted  the  most 
marked  event  of  Phips 's  administration,  there 
had  occurred  in  Boston  the  somewhat  notori- 
ous affair  of  the  Goodwin  children.  To  go 
deeply  into  the  subject  of  witchcraft  would  not 
be  fitting  in  this  volume,  especially  as  I  have 
elsewhere  1  advanced  what  seems  to  me  as  good 
a  theory  as  any  concerning  the  delusion.  More- 
over, certain  phases  of  the  whole  matter  are 
now  beginning  to  be  pretty  well  understood 
under  the  name  of  hypnotism,  suggestion  and 
the  like.  But  they  were  not  at  all  understood 
in  Cotton  Mather's  time,  and  to  blame  him  for 

1  See  "  Romance  of  Old  New  Eugland  Eoof-Trees." 


198  St.  Botolph's  Town 

not  possessing  scientific  knowledge  to  which 
we,  two  centuries  later,  have  scarcely  found 
the  key  seems  as  unfair  as  it  is  unnecessary. 
He  had  to  pay  the  price,  however,  of  the  witch- 
craft trials  which  he  incessantly  urged  on. 
And  the  process  by  which  he  paid  it  is  cer- 
tainly our  concern. 

Let  us  therefore  look  into  the  affair  of  the 
children  who  were  his  special  care.  We  may 
perhaps  get  the  facts  most  clearly  in  mind  by 
quoting  from  Governor  Hutchinson's  account, 
reproduced  by  Mr.  Poole  in  the  Memorial  His- 
tory of  Boston. 

1 '  In  1687  or  1688  began  a  more  alarming  in- 
stance than  any  that  had  preceded  it.  Four  of 
the  children  of  John  Goodwin,  a  grave  man  and 
good  liver  at  the  north  part  of  Boston,  were 
generally  believed  to  be  bewitched.  I  have 
often  heard  persons  who  were  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood speak  of  the  great  consternation  it 
occasioned.  The  children  were  all  remarkable 
for  ingenuity  of  temper,  had  been  religiously 
educated,  were  thought  to  be  without  guile. 
The  eldest  was  a  girl  of  thirteen  or  fourteen 
years.  She  had  charged  a  laundress  with  ta- 
king away  some  of  the  family  linen.  The 
mother  of  the  laundress  was  one  of  the  wild 
Irish,  of  bad  character,  and  gave  the  girl  harsh 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         199 

language;  soon  after  which  she  fell  into  fits 
which  were  said  to  have  something  diabolical 
in  them.  One  of  her  sisters  and  two  brothers 
followed  her  example,  and,  it  is  said,  were  tor- 
mented in  the  same  part  of  their  bodies  at  the 
same  time,  although  kept  in  separate  apart- 
ments and  ignorant  of  one  another's  com- 
plaints. .  .  .  Sometimes  they  would  be  deaf, 
then  dumb,  then  blind;  and  sometimes  all 
these  disorders  together  would  come  upon 
them.  Their  tongues  would  be  drawn  down 
their  throats,  then  pulled  out  upon  their  chins. 
Their  jaws,  necks,  shoulders,  elbows  and  all 
other  joints  would  appear  to  be  dislocated,  and 
they  would  make  the  most  piteous  outcries  of 
burnings,  of  being  cut  with  knives,  beat,  etc., 
and  the  marks  of  wounds  were  afterwards  to 
be  seen. 

"  The  ministers  of  Boston  and  Charlestown 
kept  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  at  the 
troubled  house ;  after  which  the  youngest  child 
made  no  more  complaints.  The  others  perse- 
vered and  the  magistrates  then  interposed,  and 
the  old  woman  was  apprehended ;  but  upon  ex- 
amination would  neither  confess  nor  deny,  and 
appeared  to  be  disordered  in  her  senses.  Upon 
the  report  of  physicians  that  she  was  compos 


200  St.  Botolph's  Town 

mentis,  she  was  executed,  declaring  at  her 
death  the  children  should  not  be  relieved. ' ' 

This  case  derives  its  peculiar  interest  from 
the  fact  that  Cotton  Mather  wrote  a  book  about 
it  and  then  engaged  in  numerous  controversies 
in  defence  of  statements  which  were  made 
therein.  He  also  preached  upon  the  subject 
more  than  was  either  wise  or  good  when  one 
considers  that  all  delusions  grow  by  what  they 
feed  upon.  Such  words  as  these  seem  clearly 
reprehensible  from  a  ' '  man  of  God :  "  "  Con- 
sider the  misery  of  them  whom  witchcraft  may 
be  let  loose  upon.  ...  0  what  a  direful  thing 
it  is  to  be  prickt  with  pins  and  stabbed  with 
knives  all  over,  and  to  be  fill'd  all  over  with 
broken  bones."  In  a  credulous  community  the 
mere  circulation  of  suggestions  like  these 
served  almost  literally  to  pour  oil  upon  the 
fire. 

So  by  the  time  Sir  William  Phips  landed  in 
the  chief  city  of  his  province  the  prisons  were 
filled  to  overflowing  with  those  suspected  of 
witchcraft  and  those  who  had  given  informa- 
tion on  the  subject.  One  of  his  first  acts,  there^ 
fore,  —  and  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that 
it  was  suggested  by  the  Mathers,  —  was  to  ap- 
point a  special  court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  to 
try  the  witches.    Of  this  court  William  Stough- 


WILLIAM    STnrcHTON 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers         201 

ton,  the  bigoted  Deputy  Governor,  was  made 
chief  justice;  and  Samuel  Sewall  was  ap- 
pointed one  of  his  associates.  When  their 
stomachs  for  the  horrible  work  upon  which 
they  had  enlisted  failed  them  they  applied  to 
the  Boston  ministers  for  advice.  Cotton 
Mather  "  earnestly  recommended  that  the  pro- 
ceedings should  be  vigorously  carried  on."  It 
is  for  this  recommendation  that  he  is  execrated 
to-day.  But  I  do  not  see  why  we  should  doubt 
the  honesty  of  his  purpose  in  giving  this  harsh 
counsel.  Witchcraft  was  to  him  a  terrible 
reality  and  the  active  presence  of  the  devil  in 
the  world  a  thing  in  which  he  implicitly  be- 
lieved. More  than  once  in  his  various  writings 
he  adduces  as  evidence  of  the  devil's  activity 
the  fact  that  steeples  of  churches  are  more 
often  struck  by  lightning  than  are  any  other 
edifices ! 

Soon  no  one  was  safe  from  accusation,  even 
Mr.  Willard,  the  pastor  of  the  Old  South,  being 
threatened  and  Lady  Phips  herself  named. 
Possibly  it  was  this  bringing  of  the  thing 
home  which  made  the  governor  put  an  abrupt 
stop  to  proceedings  that  had  already  begun  to 
menace  the  well-being  of  the  entire  community. 
Very  likely,  too,  he  had  come  to  fear,  that  he 
might  be  called  to  account  in  England.    At  any 


202  St.  Botolph's  Town 

rate  the  court  so  unceremoniously  instituted 
by  him  was  summarily  dismissed  and  a  general 
pardon  issued  to  all  those  who  had  been  con- 
victed or  accused.  And  though  a  few  infatu- 
ated individuals  continued  to  urge  prosecu- 
tions juries  refused  to  bring  in  the  verdict  of 
guilty,  —  and  Judge  Samuel  Sewall  stood  up 
manfully  (in  1696)  at  the  old  South  Church 
while  his  confession  of  having  done  wrong  in 
admitting  "  spectral  evidence  "  at  the  witch- 
craft trials  was  read  aloud  by  one  of  the  clergy- 
men. Stoughton,  when  he  heard  of  this,  de- 
clared that  he  had  no  such  confession  to  make 
having  acted  according  to  the  best  light  God 
had  given  him.  Nor  did  Cotton  Mather  feel  at 
this  time  any  consciousness  of  wrong-doing. 
Seventeen  years  later,  however,  when  his  pub- 
lic influence  was  on  the  wane  and  the  power  of 
the  Church,  for  which  he  had  had  such  hopes, 
was  also  notably  diminished  he  wrote  in  his 
Diary :  * '  I  entreated  the  Lord  that  I  might  un- 
derstand the  meaning  of  the  Descent  from  the 
Invisible  World  which,  nineteen  years  ago,  pro- 
duced a  sermon  from  me,  a  good  part  of  which 
is  now  published."  The  sermon  in  question 
was  the  one  which  had  done  so  much  to  incite 
the  witch  trials.  Evidently  Cotton  Mather  had 
at  last  come  to  doubt  its  inspiration. 


The  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers  203 

Witchcraft,  however,  was  by  no  means  the 
worst  of  poor  Sir  William  Phips's  troubles. 
He  had  to  carry  on  French  and  Indian  wars 
not  all  of  which  turned  out  well,  the  new 
charter  was  not  nearly  so  much  liked  as  the 
Mathers  had  hoped  it  might  be,  and,  —  what 
was  of  more  importance  than  anything  else,  — 
the  governor  had  a  hasty  temper  and  was  in- 
clined to  resort  to  the  strength  of  his  fists  when 
matters  proved  especially  trying  to  him.  Early 
in  his  administration,  he  had  an  altercation 
with  the  collector  of  the  port  of  Boston  which 
culminated  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight.  And,  in 
January,  1693,  a  little  difficulty  between  him 
and  the  captain  of  the  Nonesuch  frigate  brought 
upon  the  officer  a  caning  in  the  streets  of 
Boston  and  upon  Sir  William  Phips  a  sum- 
mons to  return  to  England  to  explain  his  un- 
dignified conduct.  He  obeyed  the  summons, 
passed  through  his  trial  without  any  very 
great  difficulty  and  was  permitted  to  turn  his 
energy  into  lines  for  which  he  was  better  fitted 
than  for  government.  Then  he  suddenly  died 
at  the  early  age  of  forty-five. 

With  him  died  all  hope  of  ever  restoring  the 
power  of  the  theocracy.  For  though  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Stoughton,  one  of  the  old  Puri- 
tan stock,  remained  at  the  head  of  the  govern- 


204  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ment  until  1699  flood-tide  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Mathers  had  passed  for  all  time.  That  they 
did  not  recognize  this  fact  makes  their  subse- 
quent history  only  the  more  pitiable. 


X 

THE   COLLEGE   AT    CAMBRIDGE 

To  discuss  in  any  detail  the  history  of  Har- 
vard College  would  be,  of  course,  quite  outside 
the  province  of  a  book  on  Colonial  Boston. 
But,  as  an  institution  of  which  Increase 
Mather,  one  of  Boston's  most  noted  divines, 
was  for  a  number  of  years  president,  as  an 
enterprise  to  which  Cotton  Mather  longed 
throughout  his  later  life  to  give  himself  as 
head,  and  as  a  school  in  which  almost  all  the 
men  who  made  deep  marks  upon  Boston's 
early  history  were  educated,  Harvard  has,  un- 
deniably, a  certain  claim  upon  our  attention. 
This,  too,  quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  it 
memorializes  an  early  Puritan  minister  to 
whom  we  owe  it  to  ourselves  here  to  pay  at 
least  a  passing  tribute. 

Only  seven  years  after  the  arrival  of  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop  with  the  first  charter  of  the 
colony  the  General  Court  voted  (1636)  "  four 
hundred  pounds  towards  a  school  or  college." 

205 


206  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Two  years  later,  John  Harvard,  a  young  grad- 
uate of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  who 
had  emigrated  to  Charlestown,  died,  and  be- 
queathed one-half  of  his  whole  property  and 
his  entire  library  to  the  proposed  institution. 
His  estate  amounted  to  £779  17s.  2d.,  which 
shows  he  must  have  been  among  the  most 
wealthy  of  the  early  settlers,  —  and  his  library 
consisted  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  volumes. 
Of  this  goodly  collection  of  books  but  one  sur- 
vives to-day,  —  Downame's  "  Christian  War- 
fare,"—  all  the  others  having  been  destroyed 
in  the  fire  of  1764.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
Harvard  was  assistant  minister  to  Rev.  Z. 
Symmes  in  the  first  church  at  Charlestown. 
He  was  buried  in  the  old  Charlestown  burying- 
ground  and  to  his  memory  the  alumni  of  Har- 
vard University  there  erected  September  26, 
1828,  what  was  then  regarded  as  a  very  im- 
pressive granite  monument. 

The  munificence  of  the  Rev.  John  Harvard 
inspired  further  enthusiasm  in  the  magistrates 
and  made  the  common  people,  also,  very 
anxious  to  give  their  mites  towards  the  new 
institution  of  learning.  There  is,  indeed,  some- 
thing very  touching  in  these  early  gifts,  which 
reflect  the  simplicity  of  the  necessities  in  that 
period   as  well   as  the  earnest  desire   of  the 


The  College  at  Cambridge  207 

colonists  to  help  on  the  good  work  of  educa- 
tion. One  man  bequeathed  a  number  of  sheep, 
another  a  quantity  of  cotton  cloth  worth  nine 
shillings,  another  a  pewter  flagon  worth  ten 
shillings  and  not  a  few  their  household  treas- 
ures amounting  to  perhaps  a  pound  or  so  when 
sold. 

In  1642  a  Board  of  Overseers,  consisting  of 
the  Governor  and  Deputy  Governor,  all  the 
magistrates  and  the  teaching  elders  of  the  six 
adjoining  towns  was  established.  In  1650,  a 
charter  was  granted  by  the  General  Court, 
empowering  a  corporation,  consisting  of  the 
President,  the  treasurer,  five  fellows  and  the 
overseers  to  perpetuate  themselves  and  govern 
the  affairs  of  the  college.  The  first  president 
was  Henry  Dunster,  whose  pathetic  end  has 
already  been  referred  to  in  the  chapter  on  the 
religious  persecutions.  Dunster  deserves  al- 
ways to  be  recalled,  however,  when  Harvard  in 
the  making  is  being  discussed  for  he  contrib- 
uted, at  a  time  of  its  utmost  need,  one  hundred 
acres  of  land  towards  the  support  of  the  col- 
lege and  for  many  years  served  the  institution 
unweariedly  for  scarcely  any  recompense. 
How  the  college  rewarded  him  we  have 
seen. 

But  if  they  treated  their  presidents  differ- 


208  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ently  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  they  also 
maintained  quite  a  different  attitude,  from  to- 
day, towards  their  students.  In  the  college 
records  are  preserved  several  documents  which 
throw  interesting  side-lights  upon  the  academic 
life  of  that  early  period.  None  of  these  is  more 
illuminating  than  "  Dunster's  Rules  "  printed 
in  President  Josiah  Quincy's  "  History  of 
Harvard  University,"  but  quite  worth  reprint- 
ing here  because  that  volume  is  now  so  rare. 

The  original  rules  were  in  Latin  and  all  con- 
tinued in  force  at  least  until  the  revision  of 
1734  when  a  few  were  made  less  harsh.  In 
translation  they  read: 

"  The  Laws,  Liberties  and  Orders  of  Har- 
vard College,  Confirmed  by  the  Overseers  and 
President  of  the  College  in  the  years  1642, 
1643, 1644, 1645,  and  1646,  and  Published  to  the 
Scholars  for  the  Perpetual  Preservation  of 
their  "Welfare  and  Government." 

"  1.  When  any  scholar  is  able  to  read  Tully, 
or  such  like  classical  Latin  author,  extempore, 
and  make  and  speak  true  Latin  in  verse  and 
prose  suo  (ut  aiunt)  Marte,  and  decline  per- 
fectly the  paradigms  of  nouns  and  verbs  in  the 
Greek  tongue,  then  may  he  be  admitted  into 
the  college,  nor  shall  any  claim  admission  be- 
fore such  qualifications. 


The  College  at  Cambridge  209 

"  2.  Everyone  shall  consider  the  main  end 
of  his  life  and  studies,  to  know  God  and  Jesus 
Christ,  which  is  eternal  life;   John  xvii.,  3. 

"  3.  Seeing  the  Lord  giveth  wisdom,  every- 
one shall  seriously,  by  prayer  in  secret,  seek 
wisdom  of  Him;  Proverbs  ii.,  2,  3,  etc. 

"  4.  Everyone  shall  so  exercise  himself  in 
reading  the  Scriptures  twice  a  day,  that  they 
be  ready  to  give  an  account  of  their  proficiency 
therein,  both  in  theoretical  observations  of 
language  and  logic,  and  in  practical  and  spirit- 
ual truths,  as  their  tutor  shall  require,  accord- 
ing to  their  several  abilities  respectively,  see- 
ing the  entrance  of  the  word  giveth  light,  etc. ; 
Psalm  cxix.,  130. 

'  *  5.  In  the  public  church  assembly  they  shall 
carefully  shun  all  gestures  that  show  any  con- 
tempt or  neglect  of  God's  ordinances,  and  be 
ready  to  give  an  account  to  their  tutors  of  their 
profiting,  and  to  use  the  helps  of  storing  them- 
selves with  knowledge,  as  their  tutors  shall 
direct  them.  And  all  sophisters  and  bachelors 
(until  themselves  make  common  place)  shall 
publicly  repeat  sermons  in  the  hall,  whenever 
they  are  called  forth. 

"  6.  They  shall  eschew  all  profanation  of 
God's  holy  name,  attributes,  word,  ordinances 
and  times  of  worship;   and  study,  with  rever- 


210  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ence  and  love,  carefully  to  retain  God  and  His 
truth  in  their  minds. 

"  7.  They  shall  honour  as  their  parents, 
magistrates,  elders,  tutors  and  aged  persons, 
by  being  silent  in  their  presence  (except  they 
be  called  on  to  answer),  not  gainsaying;  show- 
ing all  those  laudable  expressions  of  honour 
and  reverence  in  their  presence  that  are  in  use, 
as  bowing  before  them,  standing  uncovered,  or 
the  like. 

"  8.  They  shall  be  slow  to  speak,  and  eschew 
not  only  oaths,  lies  and  uncertain  rumours,  but 
likewise  all  idle,  foolish,  bitter  scoffing,  frothy, 
wanton  words  and  offensive  gestures. 

"  9.  None  shall  pragmatically  intrude  or  in- 
termeddle in  other  men's  affairs. 

11  10.  During  their  residence  they  shall  stu- 
diously redeem  their  time,  observe  the  general 
hours  appointed  for  all  the  scholars,  and  the 
special  hour  for  their  own  lecture,  and  then 
diligently  attend  the  lectures,  without  any  dis- 
turbance by  word  or  gesture;  and,  if  of  any- 
thing they  doubt,  they  shall  inquire  of  their 
fellows,  or  in  case  of  non-resolution,  modestly 
of  their  tutors. 

"  11.  None  shall,  under  any  pretence  what- 
soever, frequent  the  company  and  society  of 
such  men  as  lead  an  ungirt  and  dissolute  life. 


The  College  at  Cambridge  211 

Neither  shall  any,  without  the  license  of  the 
overseers  of  the  college,  be  of  the  artillery  or 
trainband.  Nor  shall  any,  without  the  license 
of  the  overseers  of  the  college,  his  tutor's 
leave,  or,  in  his  absence,  the  call  of  parents  or 
guardians,  go  out  to  another  town. 

"  12.  No  scholar  shall  buy,  sell  or  exchange 
anything,  to  the  value  of  sixpence,  without  the 
allowance  of  his  parents,  guardians  or  tutors; 
and  whosoever  is  found  to  have  sold  or  bought 
any  such  things  without  acquainting  their 
tutors  or  parents,  shall  forfeit  the  value  of  the 
commodity,  or  the  restoring  of  it,  according  to 
the  discretion  of  the  president. 

"  13.  The  scholars  shall  never  use  their 
mother  tongue,  except  that  in  public  exercises 
of  oratory,  or  such  like,  they  be  called  to  make 
them  in  English. 

"  14.  If  any  scholar,  being  in  good  health, 
shall  be  absent  from  prayers  or  lectures,  ex- 
cept in  case  of  urgent  necessity,  or  by  the  leave 
of  his  tutor,  he  shall  be  liable  to  admonition 
(or  such  punishment  as  the  president  shall 
think  meet),  if  he  offend  above  once  a  week. 

"  15.  Every  scholar  shall  be  called  by  his 
surname  only,  till  he  be  invested  with  his  first 
degree,  except  he  be  a  fellow  commoner  or 
knight's  eldest  son,  or  of  superior  nobility. 


212  St.  Botolph's  Town 

"  16.  No  scholar  shall,  under  any  pretence 
of  recreation  or  other  cause  whatever  (unless 
foreshowed  and  allowed  by  the  president  or 
his  tutor),  be  absent  from  his  studies  or  ap- 
pointed exercises,  above  an  hour  at  morning 
never,  half  an  hour  at  afternoon  never,  an 
hour  and  a  half  at  dinner,  and  so  long  at 
supper. 

"  17.  If  any  scholar  shall  transgress  any  of 
the  laws  of  God,  or  the  House  out  of  perverse- 
ness,  or  apparent  negligence,  after  twice  ad- 
monition, he  shall  be  liable,  if  not  adultus,  to 
correction;  if  adultus,  his  name  shall  be  given 
up  to  the  overseers  of  the  college,  that  he  may 
be  publicly  dealt  with  after  the  desert  of  his 
fault;  but  in  greater  offences  such  gradual 
proceeding  shall  not  be  exercised. 

"  18.  Every  scholar,  that  on  proof  is  found 
able  to  read  the  original  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  into  the  Latin  tongue  and  to  resolve 
them  logically,  withal  being  of  honest  life  and 
conversation,  and  at  any  public  act  hath  the 
approbation  of  the  overseers  and  master  of  the 
college,  may  be  invested  with  his  first  degree. 

"  19.  Every  scholar  that  giveth  up  in  wri- 
ting a  synopsis  or  summary  of  logic,  natural 
and  moral  philosophy,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
and  astronomy,   and  is   ready  to   defend  his 


The  College  at  Cambridge  213 

theses  or  positions,  withal  skilled  in  the  orig- 
inals as  aforesaid,  and  still  continues  honest 
and  studious,  at  any  public  act  after  trial,  he 
shall  be  capable  of  the  second  degree,  of  Mas- 
ter of  Arts." 

By  orders  of  the  overseers  in  1650,  it  was 
provided  among  other  things  that  "  no  scholar 
whatever,  without  the  fore-acquaintance  and 
leave  of  the  president  and  his  tutor,  shall  be 
present  at  any  of  the  public  civil  meetings,  or 
concourse  of  people,  as  courts  of  justice,  elec- 
tions, fairs,  or  at  military  exercise,  in  the  time 
or  hours  of  the  college  exercise,  public  or  pri- 
vate. Neither  shall  any  scholar  exercise  him- 
self in  any  military  band,  unless  of  known 
gravity,  and  of  approved  sober  and  virtuous 
conversation,  and  that  with  the  leave  of  the 
president  and  his  tutor. 

"  No  scholar  shall  take  tobacco,  unless  per- 
mitted by  the  president,  with  the  consent  of 
their  parents  or  guardians,  and  on  good  reason 
first  given  by  a  physician,  and  then  in  a  sober 
and  private  manner." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  corporation  in  1659,  it 
was  voted  that,  "  whereas  there  are  great  com- 
plaints of  the  exorbitant  practices  of  some  stu- 
dents of  this  college,  by  their  abusive  words 
and  actions  to  the  watch  of  this  town,"  the 


214  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Cambridge  town  watch  were  authorized  to  ex- 
ercise their  powers  within  the  precincts  of  the 
college.  It  was  provided,  however,  that  none 
"  of  the  said  watchmen  should  lay  violent 
hands  on  any  of  the  students  being  found 
within  the  precinct  of  the  college  yards,  other- 
wise than  so  that  they  may  secure  them  until 
they  may  inform  the  president  or  some  of  the 
fellows."  It  was  also  voted  that  "  in  case  any 
student  of  this  college  shall  be  found  absent 
from  his  lodging  after  nine  o'clock  at  night,  he 
shall  be  responsible  for  and  to  all  complaints 
of  disorder  in  this  kind,  that,  by  testimony  of 
the  watch  or  others  shall  appear  to  be  done  by 
any  student  of  the  college,  and  shall  be  ad- 
judged guilty  of  the  said  crime,  unless  he  can 
purge  himself  by  sufficient  witness."  In  1682, 
the  civil  authority  "  was  formally  recognized 
as  the  last  resort  for  enforcing,  in  extreme 
cases,"  college  discipline. 

In  October,  1656,  the  president  and  fellows 
were  empowered  by  statute  "  to  punish  all  mis- 
demeanours of  the  youth  in  their  society,  either 
by  fines,  or  whipping  in  the  hall  openly,  as  the 
nature  of  the  offence  shall  require,  not  exceed- 
ing ten  shillings,  or  ten  stripes  for  one  of- 
fence." The  tutors  "  chastised  at  discretion, 
and   on  very  solemn  occasions   the   overseers 


The  College  at  Cambridge  215 

were  called  together,  either  to  authorize  or  to 
witness  the  execution  of  the  severer  punish- 
ments." An  old  diary  tells  of  the  punishment, 
in  1674,  of  one  who  had  been  guilty  of  "  speak- 
ing blasphemous  words."  The  sentence  of  the 
overseers  was  read  twice  in  the  library.  Then, 
"  the  offender  having  kneeled,  the  president 
prayed,  and  then  publicly  whipped,  before  all 
the  scholars,"  the  blasphemer.  "  The  solem- 
nities were  closed  by  another  prayer  from  the 
president." 

Although  this  public  flogging  by  the  presi- 
dent gradually  fell  into  disuse,  it  was  not  for- 
mally abolished  until  1734  when  the  right  of 
punishing  undergraduates  by  "  boxing  "  was 
"  expressly  reserved  to  the  president,  profes- 
sors, and  tutors."  In  1755,  the  doing  away 
with  this  form  of  punishment  was  considered; 
but  no  decisive  action  was  taken,  although  the 
practice  was  gradually  given  up. 

The  system  of  imposing  fines  for  infractions 
of  the  rules  continued.     Here  is  the  schedule. 

1 '  List  of  pecuniary  mulcts : 

"  Absence  from  prayers,  2d;  tardiness  at 
prayers,  Id;  absence  from  professor's  public 
lecture,  4d;  tardiness  at  professor's  public 
lecture,  2d;  profanation  of  Lord's  Day,  not 
exceeding  3s;    absence   from  public  worship, 


216  St.  Botolph's  Town 

9d;  tardiness  at  public  worship,  3d;  ill  beha- 
viour at  public  worship,  not  exceeding  Is  6d; 
going  to  meeting  before  bell-ringing,  6d;  neg- 
lecting to  repeat  the  sermon,  9d;  irreverent 
behaviour  at  prayers,  or  public  divinity  lec- 
tures, Is  6d;  absence  from  chambers,  etc.,  not 
exceeding  6d;  not  declaiming,  not  exceeding 
Is  6d ;  not  giving  up  a  declamation,  not  exceed- 
ing Is  6d;  absence  from  recitation,  not  exceed- 
ing Is  6d;  neglecting  analyzing,  not  exceeding 
3s;  bachelors  neglecting  disputations,  not  ex- 
ceeding Is  6d;  respondents  neglecting  dispu- 
tations, from  Is  6d  to  3s;  undergraduates  out 
of  town  without  leave,  not  exceeding  2s  6d; 
undergraduates  tarrying  out  of  town  without 
leave,  not  exceeding,  per  diem,  Is  3d;  under- 
graduates tarrying  out  of  town  one  week  with- 
out leave,  not  exceeding  10s;  undergraduates 
tarrying  out  of  town  one  month  without  leave, 
not  exceeding  £2  10s;  lodging  strangers  with- 
out leave,  not  exceeding  Is  6d;  entertaining 
persons  of  ill  character,  not  exceeding  Is  6d; 
going  out  of  college  without  proper  garb,  not 
exceeding  6d;  frequenting  taverns,  not  exceed- 
ing Is  6d;  profane  cursing,  not  exceeding  2s 
6d ;  graduates  playing  cards,  not  exceeding  5s ; 
undergraduates   playing  cards,  not  exceeding 


The  College  at  Cambridge  217 

2s  6d;  undergraduates  playing  any  game  for 
money,  not  exceeding  Is  6d;  selling  and  ex- 
changing without  leave,  not  exceeding  Is  6d; 
lying,  not  exceeding  Is  6d;  opening  door  by 
pick-locks,  not  exceeding  5s;  drunkenness,  not 
exceeding  Is  6d ;  liquors  prohibited  under  pen- 
alty, not  exceeding  Is  6d;  second  offence,  not 
exceeding  3s;  keeping  prohibited  liquors,  not 
exceeding  Is  6d;  sending  for  prohibited 
liquors,  not  exceeding  6d;  fetching  prohibited 
liquors,  not  exceeding  Is  6d;  going  upon  the 
top  of  the  college,  Is  6d;  cutting  off  the  lead, 
Is  66. ;  concealing  the  transgression  of  the  19th 
law,  Is  6d;  tumultuous  noises,  Is  6d;  second 
offence,  3s;  refusing  to  give  evidence,  3s; 
rudeness  at  meals,  Is ;  butler  and  cook  to  keep 
utensils  clean,  not  exceeding  5s;  not  lodging 
at  their  chambers,  not  exceeding  Is  6d;  send- 
ing freshmen  in  studying  time,  9d;  keeping 
guns,  and  going  on  skating,  Is ;  firing  guns  or 
pistols  in  college  yard,  2s  6d;  fighting  or  hurt- 
ing any  person,  not  exceeding  Is  6d." 

It  is  noteworthy  that  "  undergraduates  play- 
ing cards  "  (whether  merely  "  for  pins  "  or 
"  for  money  ")  were  punished  by  a  fine  of  2s 
6d ;  but  that  ' '  lying  "  —  an  offence  of  which 
very   few   students   are   now   guilty,   and   for 


218  St.  Botolph's  Town 

which  suspension,  if  not  expulsion,  is  now  con- 
sidered a  mild  punishment  —  made  the  liar 
liable  only  to  a  fine  of  Is  6d. 

Naturally  students  were  little  disturbed  by 
these  fines.  They  proved  so  annoying  to  par- 
ents, however,  that  in  1761  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  consider  some  other  method  of 
punishing  offenders.  Although  mulcts  were 
not  entirely  abolished,  a  system  was  adopted 
which  resembled  somewhat  the  present  meth- 
ods of  enforcing  discipline  by  "  admonition," 
"  probation,"  "  suspension,"  "  dismissal,"  or 
"  expulsion." 

In  addition  to  the  formal  rules,  a  system  of 
"  Ancient  Customs  of  Harvard  College,  Es- 
tablished by  the  Government  of  It,"  grew  up, 
was  recognized  by  the  authorities  and  soon  had 
all  the  force  of  law.  As  these  had  to  do  chiefly 
with  the  conduct  of  freshmen,  and  as  it  was  to 
the  interest  of  all  the  "  seniors  "  that  these 
customs  should  be  observed,  doubtless  they 
were  more  scrupulously  lived  up  to  than  Pres- 
ident Dunster's  rules.  Here  is  a  copy  of  these 
customs  as  they  appear  in  the  official  records: 

"  1.  No  freshman  shall  wear  his  hat  in  the 
college  yard,  unless  it  rains,  hails,  or  snows, 
provided  he  be  on  foot,  and  have  not  both 
hands  full. 


The  College  at  Cambridge  219 

"2.  No  undergraduate  shall  wear  his  hat  in 
the  college  yard,  when  any  of  the  governors  of 
the  college  are  there;  and  no  bachelor  shall 
wear  his  hat  when  the  president  is  there. 

"  3.  Freshmen  are  to  consider  all  the  other 
classes  as  their  seniors. 

"  4.  No  freshmen  shall  speak  to  a  senior 
with  his  hat  on;  or  have  it  on  in  a  senior's 
chamber,  or  in  his  own  if  a  senior  be  there. 

"  5.  All  the  undergraduates  shall  treat  those 
in  the  government  of  the  college  with  respect 
and  deference;  particularly  they  shall  not  be 
seated  without  leave  in  their  presence;  they 
shall  be  uncovered  when  they  speak  to  them 
or  are  spoken  to  by  them. 

11  6.  All  freshmen  (except  those  employed  by 
the  immediate  government  of  the  college)  shall 
be  obliged  to  go  on  any  errand  (except  such  as 
shall  be  judged  improper  by  some  one  in  the 
government  of  the  college)  for  any  of  his  se- 
niors, graduates  or  undergraduates,  at  any 
time,  except  in  studying  hours,  or  after  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening. 

"  7.  A  senior  sophister  has  authority  to  take 
a  freshman  from  a  sophomore,  a  middle  bach- 
elor from  a  junior  sophister,  a  master  from  a 
senior  sophister,  and  any  governor  of  the  col- 
lege from  a  master. 


220  St.  Botolph's  Town 


"  8.  Every  freshman  before  lie  goes  for  the 
person  who  takes  him  away  (unless  it  be  one 
in  the  government  of  the  college),  shall  return 
and  inform  the  person  from  whom  he  is  taken. 

"  9.  No  freshman,  when  sent  on  an  errand, 
shall  make  any  unnecessary  delay,  neglect  to 
make  due  return,  or  go  away  till  dismissed  by 
the  person  who  sent  him. 

"  10.  No  freshman  shall  be  detained  by  a 
senior  when  not  actually  employed  on  some 
suitable  errand. 

"  11.  No  freshman  shall  be  obliged  to  ob- 
serve any  order  of  a  senior  to  come  to  him,  or 
go  on  any  errand  for  him,  unless  he  be  wanted 
immediately. 

"  12.  No  freshman,  when  sent  on  an  errand, 
shall  tell  who  he  is  going  for,  unless  he  be 
asked;  nor  be  obliged  to  tell  what  he  is  going 
for,  unless  asked  by  a  governor  of  the  college. 

"  13.  When  any  person  knocks  at  a  fresh- 
man's door,  except  in  studying  time,  he  shall 
immediately  open  the  door,  without  inquiring 
who  is  there. 

"  14.  No  scholar  shall  call  up  or  down,  to 
or  from,  any  chamber  in  the  college. 

"  15.  No  scholar  shall  play  football  or  any 
other  game  in  the  college  yard,  or  throw  any- 
thing across  the  yard. 


The  College  at  Cambridge  221 

"16.  The  freshmen  shall  furnish  bats,  balls 
and  footballs  for  the  use  of  the  students,  to  be 
kept  at  the  buttery. 

"  17.  Every  freshman  shall  pay  the  butler 
for  putting  up  his  name  in  the  buttery. 

"  18.  Strict  attention  shall  be  paid  by  all  the 
students  to  the  common  rules  of  cleanliness, 
decency  and  politeness. 

"  The  sophomores  shall  publish  these  cus- 
toms to  the  freshmen  in  the  chapel,  whenever 
ordered  by  any  in  the  government  of  the  col- 
lege; at  which  time  the  freshmen  are  enjoined 
to  keep  their  places  in  their  seats,  and  attend 
with  decency  to  the  reading." 

About  1772,  after  the  overseers  had  repeat- 
edly recommended  abolishing  the  custom  of 
allowing  the  upper  classes  to  send  freshmen  on 
errands,  the  president  and  fellows  voted  that 
"  after  deliberate  consideration  and  weighing 
all  circumstances,  they  are  not  able  to  project 
any  plan  in  the  room  of  this  long  and  ancient 
custom,  that  will  not  be  attended  with  equal, 
if  not  greater  inconveniences."  Indeed,  in 
1786,  "  the  retaining  men  or  boys  to  perform 
the  services  for  which  freshmen  had  been  here- 
tofore employed  "  was  declared  to  be  a  grow- 
ing evil,  and  was  prohibited  by  the  corporation. 

In  extenuation  of  the  Dunster  rules  it  should 


222  St.  Botolph's  Town 

be  borne  in  mind,  of  course,  that  Harvard, 
instead  of  being  the  university  for  young  men 
which  we  now  know,  was  then  little  more  than 
a  "  seminary  "  for  boys.  It  was  indeed  the 
puerility  of  the  students  which  made  it  diffi- 
cult, for  a  long  time,  to  get  a  man  of  first  class 
powers  to  act  as  president  at  Cambridge.  In- 
crease Mather,  of  whose  dallying  with  the 
office  we  shall  hear  much  a  few  pages  further 
on,  finally  said  frankly,  when  pushed  to  it,  that 
he  had  no  mind  whatever  to  "  leave  preaching 
to  1,500  souls  .  .  .  only  to  expound  to  40  or 
50  children,  few  of  them  capable  of  edification 
by  such  exercises. " 

Dunster,  however,  gladly  consecrated  four- 
teen years  of  his  life  to  the  upbuilding  of  the 
college.  In  this  task  he  had  the  devoted  co- 
operation of  his  wife,  a  woman  of  such  parts 
as  to  entitle  her  to  respectful  notice  on  her 
own  account.  For  Elizabeth  Dunster  was,  by 
her  first  marriage,  Elizabeth  Glover,  wife  of 
Eev.  Joseph  Glover,  —  rector  of  the  church  at 
Sutton  in  Surrey,  England,  —  who  in  1638  re- 
signed as  minister  and  came  to  found  the  first 
printing-press  ever  known  in  New  England. 
During  the  voyage  over  Rev.  Joseph  Glover 
passed  away,  and  his  wife  was  therefore  con- 
fronted with  the  necessity  of  setting  up  her 


The  College  at  Cambridge  223 

press  alone.  Her  husband  had  already  ar- 
ranged with  Stephen  Daye  of  London  to  have 
a  share  in  the  undertaking,  and  it  is  his  imprint 
—  S.  D.  —  which  all  the  early  productions  of 
the  press  bear.  But  President  Dunster  gave 
accommodation  in  his  own  house  to  the  plant 
and  very  likely  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  its 
early  output.  It  is  even  conceivable  that  be- 
tween planning  out  his  rigid  "  Rules  "  he  re- 
laxed by  "  holding  copy  "  for  the  fair  widow 
to  whose  heart  he  soon  laid  siege. 

Certainly  he  would  have  assisted  with  unc- 
tion in  turning  out  the  famous  "  Freeman's 
Oath  "  given  on  the  broadside  which  was  the 
very  first  issue  of  the  press.  This  oath,  printed 
in  1639,  splendidly  reflects  the  sturdy  charac- 
ter of  the  early  colonists  and  is  indeed  just  as 
pertinent  to-day  as  it  was  then.  One  of  the 
most  stirring  sights  I  have  ever  seen  is  its  ad- 
ministration each  spring,  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Bos- 
ton, on  the  occasion  of  the  New  Voters  Fes- 
tival. It  reads  in  part:  "  I  do  solemnly  bind 
myself  in  the  sight  of  God,  when  I  shall  be 
called  to  give  my  voice  touching  any  such  mat- 
ter of  this  state,  in  which  Free-men  are  to  deal, 
I  will  give  my  vote  and  suffrage  as  I  shall 
judge  in  mine  own  conscience  may  best  conduce 
and  tend  to  the  public  weal  uf  the  body,  with- 


224  St.  Botolph's  Town 

out  respect  of  persons,  or  favour  of  any 
man. ' ' 

After  Dunster  had  been  driven  out,  Chaun- 
cey,  Hoar,  and  Oakes  were  successively  presi- 
dents of  the  college,  but  there  is  little  of  inter- 
est to  us,  in  the  conduct  of  the  institution,  until 
the  election  in  1685  of  Increase  Mather  as  its 
head.  Mather  took  the  place  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  should  not  reside  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  should  be  permitted  to  continue, 
at  the  same  time,  his  work  as  pastor  of  the 
second  church  in  Boston.  He  was  still  presi- 
dent when  sent  on  his  mission  to  England,  and 
in  July,  1688,  in  an  interview  with  James  II 
he  brought  his  long-continued  efforts  to  secure 
a  royal  charter  for  the  college  to  what  he 
thought  to  be  a  head.  For  he  then  asked  the 
king  directly  to  grant  a  charter  for  a  non-con- 
formist institution.  Yet  when  the  new  charter 
really  materialized,  was  signed  by  Sir  William 
Phips  and  went  back  to  England  for  ratifica- 
tion, the  king  vetoed  it  (July,  1696)  for  the 
reason  that  it  provided  no  visiting  board.  Still 
Mather  was  not  in  the  least  discouraged;  op- 
portunity for  another  appointment  to  England 
seemed  thus  provided. 

The  object  of  the  preacher-president  in  all 
this  matter  of  the  new  charter  —  which  it  is 


Z     - 


The  College  at  Cambridge  225 

not  worth  our  while  here  to  follow  in  detail  — 
was  to  make  the  college  at  Cambridge  dis- 
tinctly the  stamping-ground  of  his  own  par- 
ticular brand  of  dissent.  The  king,  however, 
had  an  eye  to  the  recognition  of  episcopacy 
at  Cambridge,  and  so  would  not  grant  the  kind 
of  charter  for  which  Mather  yearned.  More- 
over, during  the  absence  abroad  of  the  presi- 
dent, certain  lay  members,  who  were  not  en- 
slaved to  him,  gained  power  on  the  board.  In 
spite  of  all  that  he  could  do,  therefore,  Mather 
gradually  lost  his  hold  upon  the  college. 

The  occasion  but  not  the  cause  of  his  en- 
forced resignation  was  his  refusal  to  live  in 
Cambridge.  For  several  years  the  legislature 
had  been  steadily  passing  resolutions  requiring 
the  president  to  go  into  residence,  but  these 
Mather,  for  the  most  part,  blandly  ignored. 
Then,  in  1698,  they  voted  the  president  the  lib- 
eral salary,  for  that  age,  of  two  hundred 
pounds  annually  and  appointed  a  committee  to 
wait  upon  him.  Judge  Sewall  describes  the 
ensuing  interview:  "  Mr.  President  expostu- 
lated with  Mr.  Speaker  .  .  .  about  the  votes 
being  altered  from  250.  .  .  .  We  urged  his 
going  all  we  could ;  I  told  him  of  his  birth  and 
education  here;  that  he  look'd  at  work  rather 
than  wages,  all  met  in  desiring  him.  .  .  .   [He] 


226  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Objected  want  of  a  house,  bill  for  corporation 
not  pass'd  .  .  .  must  needs  preach  once  every 
week,  which  he  preferred  before  the  gold  and 
silver  of  the  West  Indies.  I  told  him  would 
preach  twice  a  day  to  the  students.  He  said 
that  [exposition]  was  nothing  like  preaching." 

The  real  reason  why  Mather  fought  off  set- 
tling in  Cambridge  was  however  his  lingering 
hope  that  he  might  still  get  the  English  mis- 
sion he  so  ardently  desired.  But  the  Massa- 
chusetts Assembly  was  about  at  the  end  of  its 
patience,  and  on  July  10,  1700,  they  voted 
Mather  two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  a 
year,  at  the  same  time  appointing  a  committee 
to  obtain  from  him  a  categorical  answer.  This 
time  the  president  apparently  complied  with 
the  request  of  the  authorities,  and  after  a 
"  suitable  place  .  .  .  for  his  reception  and  en- 
tertainment "  had  been  prepared  at  the  public 
expense,  he  moved  to  Cambridge.  By  the  last 
of  October  he  was  back  in  town  again,  however, 
professing  to  Stoughton  that  Cambridge  did 
not  suit  his  health  and  suggesting  that  another 
president  be  found. 

To  his  great  surprise  the  General  Court 
"  took  him  up  "  and  resolved  that  "  foras- 
much as  the  Constitution  requires  that  the 
President  reside  at  Cambridge,  which  is  now 


The  College  at  Cambridge  227 

altered  by  his  removal  from  thence,  and  to  the 
intent  that  a  present  necessary  oversight  be 
taken  of  the  College,  ...  in  case  of  Mr.  Math- 
er's refusal  absence,  sickness  or  death,  that 
Mr.  Samuel  Willard  be  Vice-President." 
Stimulated  by  this  Increase  Mather  managed 
to  sustain  residence  in  Cambridge  for  three 
months  more.  Then,  in  a  characteristic  note 
to  Stoughton,  who  was  then  acting  governor, 
he  expressed  his  determination  to  "  return  to 
Boston  the  next  week  and  no  more  to  reside 
in  Cambridge;  for  it  is  not  reasonable  to  de- 
sire me  to  be  (as  out  of  respect  to  the  public 
interest  I  have  been  six  months  within  this 
twelve)  any  longer  absent  from  my  family. 
...  I  do  therefore  earnestly  desire  that  the 
General  Court  would  .  .  .  think  of  another 
president."  "  But/'  warns  our  reluctantly 
retiring  official,  "  it  would  be  fatal  to  the  in- 
terest of  religion,  if  a  person  disaffected  to  the 
order  of  the  Gospel,  professed  and  practiced 
in  these  churches,  should  preside  over  this  so- 
ciety. ' ' 

This  letter  proved  Mather's  undoing,  for 
when  he  made  it  clear  to  the  Court  that  he 
could  "  with  no  conveniency  any  longer  reside 
at  Cambridge  and  take  care  of  the  College 
there,"  a  committee  was  promptly  appointed 


228  St.  Botolph's  Town 


"  to  wait  upon  the  Rev.  Samuel  Willard  and 
to  desire  him  to  accept  the  care  and  charge  of 
the  said  College  and  to  reside  in  Cambridge 
in  order  thereunto."  The  outcome  of  the 
whole  matter  was  that  Mather,  who  for  years 
would  neither  reside  nor  resign,  was  succeeded 
at  length  by  Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  who  prom- 
ised to  stay  at  the  college  two  days  and  nights 
a  week.  This  appointing  was  made  on  Sep- 
tember 6,  1701,  by  the  General  Court  Council 
of  which  Sewall  was  a  member.  That  worthy 
had,  therefore,  to  pay  the  price  of  the  decision. 
The  manner  of  this  is  amusingly  told  in  his 
Diary : 

"  1701,  Oct.  20.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  came 
to  Mr.  Wilkins's  shop  and  there  talked  very 
sharply  against  me  as  if  I  had  used  his  father 
worse  than  a  neger ;  spake  so  loud  that  people 
in  the  street  might  hear  him.  ...  I  had  read 
in  the  morn  Mr.  Dod's  saying;  Sanctified  af- 
flictions are  good  promotions.  I  found  it  now 
a  cordial. 

"  Oct.  6.  I  sent  Mr.  Increase  Mather  a 
hanch  of  good  venison;  I  hope  in  that  I  did 
not  treat  him  as  a  negro. 

"  Oct.  22,  1701.  I,  with  Major  Walley  and 
Capt.  Saml.  Checkly,  speak  with  Mr.  Cotton 
Mather  at  Mr.  Wilkins's.  ...  I  told  him  of 


The  College  at  Cambridge  229 

his  book  of  the  Law  of  Kindness  for  the 
Tongue,  whether  this  were  corresponding  with 
that.  Whether  correspondent  with  Christ's 
rule:  He  said,  having  spoken  to  me  before 
there  was  no  need  to  speak  to  me  again;  and 
so  justified  his  reviling  me  behind  my  back. 
Charg'd  the  council  with  lying,  hypocrisy, 
tricks  and  I  know  not  what  all  .  .  .  and  then 
show'd  my  share  which  was  in  my  speech  in 
council ;  viz.  If  Mr.  Mather  should  goe  to  Cam- 
bridge again  to  reside  there  with  a  resolution 
not  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  expound  in  the 
Hall :  I  fear  the  example  of  it  will  do  more 
hurt  than  his  going  thither  will  doe  good.  This 
speech  I  owned.  ...  I  ask'd  him  if  I  should 
supose  he  had  done  something  amiss  in  his 
church  as  an  officer;  whether  it  would  be  well 
for  me  to  exclaim  against  him  in  the  street  for 
it."  Samuel  Sewall,  a  mere  layman,  thus  re- 
buking the  impeccable  Mathers  must  certainly 
have  been  a  spectacle  for  gods  and  men ! 

The  truth  is,  however,  that,  in  this  matter 
of  the  college,  Cotton  Mather  put  himself,  on 
this  occasion  and  again  on  a  later  one,  hope- 
lessly in  the  wrong.  For  the  thing  did  not  end 
with  the  defeat  of  his  father  for  president. 
He  himself  soon  began  to  look  with  covetous 
eyes  on  the  executive  chair  at  Cambridge.    And 


230  St.  Botolph's  Town 

when,  after  the  death  of  Willard  in  1707,  John 
Leverett,  the  right-hand  man  of  Governor  Jo- 
seph Dudley,  was  elected  to  the  office,  the  wrath 
of  the  younger  Mather  knew  no  bounds.  The 
fact  that  thirty-nine  ministers,  presumably  as 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  college  as  even 
he  could  be,  had  enthusiastically  endorsed 
Dudley's  choice  of  Leverett,  counted  for  noth- 
ing as  against  his  wounded  pride. 

Sewall  describes  with  unction  Dudley's  inau- 
guration of  his  friend:  "  The  govr.  prepar'd 
a  Latin  speech  for  instalment  of  the  president. 
Then  took  the  president  by  the  hand  and  led 
him  down  into  the  hall.  .  .  .  The  govr.  sat 
with  his  back  against  a  noble  fire.  .  .  .  Then 
the  govr.  read  his  speech  .  .  .  and  mov'd  the 
books  in  token  of  their  delivery.  Then  presi- 
dent made  a  short  Latin  speech,  importing  the 
difficulties  discouraging  and  yet  he  did  accept : 
.  .  .  Clos'd  with  the  hymn  to  the  Trinity.  Had 
a  very  good  dinner  upon  3  or  4  tables.  .  .  . 
Got  home  very  well.    Laus  Deo." 

The  Mathers  were  now  thoroughly  beaten, 
but  they  could  not  seem  to  understand  that  a 
man  might  honestly  fail  in  appreciation  of 
them,  and  they  proceeded  to  charge  Dudley 
with  all  manner  of  bribery,  hypocrisy  and  cor- 
ruption.   Their  letters  to  the  governor  at  this 


GOVERNOR    JOSEPH    Drni.EY 


The  College  at  Cambridge  231 

time  seem  to  me  so  pitiful  an  exhibition  of 
narrowness  that  I  will  not  reproduce  them. 
For  I  still  feel  that  both  father  and  son  were 
sincere,  and  that  to  bury  them  beneath  such 
adjectives  as  "  dastardly  "  and  "  venomous  " 
—  after  the  manner  of  many  writers  —  is  not 
to  reproduce  faithfully  this  interesting  conten- 
tion. Dudley,  however,  was  an  able  man,  even 
if  his  political  career  had  not,  in  every  par- 
ticular, been  above  reproach.  And  this  time 
he  happened  to  be  right.  So  we  cannot  do  bet- 
ter than  close  our  chapter  with  his  admirably 
dignified  answer  to  the  accusations  of  the 
Mathers,  a  reply  which  is  also,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  a  deserved  rebuke  to  the  claims  of  the  the- 
ocracy as  regards  the  college. 

"  Gentlemen,  Yours  of  the  20th  instant  re- 
ceived; and  the  contents,  both  as  to  the  matter 
and  manner,  astonish  me  to  the  last  degree. 
I  must  think  you  have  extremely  forgot  your 
own  station,  as  well  as  my  character;  other- 
wise it  had  been  impossible  to  have  made  such 
an  open  breach  upon  all  the  laws  of  decency, 
honour,  justice  and  Christianity,  as  you  have 
done  in  treating  me  with  an  air  of  superiority 
and  contempt,  which  would  have  been  greatly 
culpable  towards  a  Christian  of  lowest  order, 


232  St.  Botolph's  Town 

and  is  insufferably  rude  toward  one  whom  di- 
vine Providence  has  honoured  with  the  charac- 
ter of  your  governour.  .  .  . 

"  Why,  gentlemen,  have  you  been  so  long 
silent?  and  suffered  sin  to  lie  upon  me  years 
after  years?  You  cannot  pretend  any  new  in- 
formation as  to  the  main  of  your  charge;  for 
you  have  privately  given  your  tongues  a  loose 
upon  these  heads,  I  am  well  assured,  when  you 
thought  you  could  serve  yourselves  by  expo- 
sing me.  Surely  murder,  robberies  and  other 
such  naming  immoralities  were  as  reprovable 
then  as  now.  .  .  . 

"  Really,  gentlemen,  conscience  and  religion 
are  things  too  solemn,  venerable  or  sacred,  to 
be  played  with,  or  made  a  covering  for  actions 
so  disagreeable  to  the  gospel,  as  these  your 
endeavours  to  expose  me  and  my  most  faith- 
ful services  to  contempt;  nay,  to  unhinge  the 
government.  .  .  . 

"  I  desire  you  will  keep  your  station,  and 
let  fifty  or  sixty  good  ministers,  your  equals 
in  the  province,  have  a  share  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  college,  and  advise  thereabouts  as 
well  as  yourselves,  and  I  hope  all  will  be 
well.  ...  I  am  your  humble  servant, 

"  J.  Dudley. 

"  To  the  Reverend  Doctors  Mathers." 


£*K 


:^> 


# 


TheTOWNof 

OS  TON 


Znyrarm.  oW  i'rwUd  by  Tra    Dtnvy  JJoitonNE.i7)2.       Sold  by  Cap'.J^hn£,mn^rartd  WM'Pria,  qp**n/ty  Tmnt&u/'  nd«*my,ttk»/'llS"*<f'J*n* 


XI 

THE   BOSTON    OF    FRANKLIN 's   BOYHOOD 

The  Boston  over  which  the  Mathers  reluc- 
tantly relinquished  ascendency  was,  in  its  out- 
ward aspect,  pretty  much  that  which  Franklin 
has  descrihed  for  all  time  in  his  matchless 
Autobiography.  Their  reign  had  covered  a 
period  of  many  changes.  When  Increase 
Mather  had  been  at  the  height  of  his  power 
the  taxable  polls  of  the  town  numbered  a  little 
less  than  nine  hundred  and  the  estates  were 
valued  (in  1680)  at  about  £23,877.  By  1722 
there  were  more  than  eighteen  thousand  in- 
habitants in  Boston. 

To  be  sure  this  estimate  of  the  earlier  date 
followed  closely  two  pretty  serious  fires.  That 
of  November,  1676,  was  thus  described  by  a 
contemporary  writer:  "It  pleased  God  to 
alarm  the  town  of  Boston,  and  in  them  the 
whole  country,  by  a  sad  fire,  accidentally  kin- 
dled by  the  carelessness  of  an  apprentice  that 
sat  up  too  late  over  night,  as  was  conceived 

233 


234  St.  Botolph's  Town 

[the  lad  was  rising  before  daylight  to  go  to  his 
work  and  fell  asleep  while  dressing,  the  result 
being  that  his  candle  set  the  house  on  fire] ; 
the  fire  continued  three  or  four  hours  in  which 
time  it  burned  down  to  the  ground  forty-six 
dwelling  houses,  besides  other  buildings,  to- 
gether with  a  meeting-house  of  considerable 
bigness."  This  meeting-house  of  "  consider- 
able bigness  "  was  the  Second  Church,  the 
church  of  the  Mathers,  the  first  sermon  in 
which  had  been  preached  in  June,  1650.  Ke- 
built  on  its  old  site  immediately  after  this  fire, 
the  edifice  stood  at  the  head  of  North  Square 
until  the  British  soldiers,  in  1775,  pulled  it 
down  for  firewood.  Mr.  Mather's  dwelling 
was  destroyed  in  the  same  fire  which  deprived 
him  of  his  parish  church,  ' '  but  not  an  hundred 
of  his  books  from  above  a  thousand  "  were 
lost.  The  town  did  not  yet  possess  any  fire- 
engine,  but  this  great  conflagration  hastened 
the  acquiring  of  one,  and,  two  years  later,  Bos- 
ton had  its  first  organized  fire  company. 

Then,  on  August  7,  1680,  there  came  another 
"  terrible  fire,"  which  raged  about  twelve 
hours.  Capt.  John  Hull,  who  kept  a  Diary, 
records  that  this  fire  began  "  about  midnight 
in  an  alehouse,  which  by  sunrise  consumed  the 
body  of  the  trading  part  of  the  Towne;   from 


B  E  N  J  AMI  N    1  R  A  N  K  L 1 N* 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   235 

the  Mill  creek  to  Mr.  Oliver's  house,  not  one 
house  nor  warehouse  left;  and  went  from  my 
warehouse  to  Mrs.  Leveret's  hence  to  Mr.  Hez. 
Usher's,  thence  to  Mrs.  Thacher's  thence  to 
Thomas  Fitch's."  Another  contemporary 
manuscript  account  adds  that  'the  number  of 
houses  burnt  was  77  and  of  ware  houses  35." 
This  fire  was  believed  to  have  been  of  incen- 
diary origin,  and  one  Peter  Lorphelin,  who 
was  suspected  of  having  set  it,  was  sent  to  jail 
and  then  "  sentenced  to  stand  two  hours  in 
the  Pillory,  have  both  ears  cut  off,  give  bond 
of  £500  (with  two  sureties),  pay  charges  of 
prosecution,  fees  of  Court,  and  to  stand  com- 
mitted till  the  sentence  be  performed." 

After  this  fire  the  burnt  district  was  rebuilt 
with  such  rapidity  that  lumber  could  not  be 
had  fast  enough  for  the  purpose  and  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  prohibit,  temporarily,  its 
exportation.  One  of  the  buildings  then  erected 
survived  until  1860  and  was  long  known  as  the 
Old  Feather  store.  It  stood  in  Dock  (now 
Adams)  Square  so  close,  in  early  days,  to  tide- 
water that  the  prows  of  vessels  moored  in  the 
dock  almost  touched  it.  The  frame  was  of 
hewn  oak  and  the  outside  walls  were  finished 
in  rough-cast  cement,  with  broken  glass  so 
firmly  imbedded  in  it  that  time  produced  no 


236  St.  Botolph's  Town 

effect.  The  date  1680  was  placed  upon  the 
principal  gable  of  the  westerly  front.  For 
many  years  the  store  on  the  ground  floor  was 
used  for  the  sale  of  feathers,  though,  from  the 
building's  peculiar  shape,  it  was  quite  as  often 
called  The  Old  Cocked  Hat  as  The  Old  Feather 
Store. 

The  menace  of  fire  had  come  to  be  a  very 
serious  one  in  a  town  having  so  many  wooden 
buildings.  Accordingly  in  the  June,  1693, 
term  of  the  General  Court  there  was  passed 
an  "  Act  for  building  of  stone  or  brick  in  the 
town  of  Boston  and  preventing  fire."  It  was 
here  ordained  that  "  hence  forth  no  dwelling 
house,  shop,  warehouse,  barn,  stable,  or  any 
other  housing  of  more  than  eight  feet  in  length 
or  breadth,  and  seven  feet  in  height,  shall  be 
erected  and  set  up  in  Boston  but  of  stone  or 
brick  and  covered  with  slate  or  tyle,"  except 
in  particular  cases  and  then  not  without  license 
from  the  proper  authorities.  Six  years  later 
the  possible  exceptions  were  greatly  curtailed. 

Yet  in  October,  1711,  there  was  another 
shocking  fire  which  "  reduced  Cornhill  into 
miserable  ruins  and  made  its  impression  into 
King's  street  [now  State  street],  into  Queen's 
street  [now  Court  street]  and  a  great  part  of 
Pudding-lane     [Devonshire    street].      Among 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood  237 

these  ruins  were  two  spacious  Edifices,  which 
until  now,  made  a  most  considerable  figure, 
because  of  the  public  relations  to  our  greatest 
solemnities  in  which  they  had  stood  from  the 
days  of  our  Fathers.  The  one  was  the  Town- 
house; the  other  the  Old  Meeting-house.  The 
number  of  houses,  and  some  of  them  very  spa- 
cious buildings,  which  went  into  the  fire  with 
these,  is  computed  near  about  a  hundred." 
Those  not  burned  out  in  the  fire  contributed 
about  seven  hundred  pounds  through  the 
churches  of  Boston  to  the  families  that  had 
suffered  loss.  The  immediate  effect  of  this 
conflagration  was  the  appointment  of  ten  of- 
ficers called  Fire  wards  in  the  various  parts 
of  the  town  who  were  ' '  to  have  a  proper  badge 
assigned  to  distinguish  them  in  their  office, 
namely  a  staff  of  five  feet  in  length,  coloured 
red,  and  headed  with  a  bright  brass  spire  of 
six  inches  long."  These  functionaries  had  full 
power  to  command  all  persons  at  fires,  to  pull 
down  or  blow  up  houses  and  to  protect  goods. 
Among  the  small  boys  interested,  as  boys 
have  ever  been,  in  the  havoc  wrought  by  this 
fire  of  1711,  there  would  very  likely  have  been 
found  the  five-year-old  son  of  Josiah  Franklin, 
tallow-chandler.  Franklin  had  been  a  dyer  in 
England  but,  upon  reaching  Boston,  had  set 


238  St.  Botolph's  Town 

up  in  the  business  of  chandlery  and  soap  boil- 
ing. In  1691  he  had  built  —  near  the  south 
meeting-house  —  on  what  is  now  Milk  street, 
a  dwelling  for  his  family,  and  there  on  Sunday, 
January  17,  1706,  his  child  Benjamin  was  born. 
Soon  afterwards,  Josiah  Franklin  removed  to 
a  house  at  the  corner  of  Hanover  and  Union 
streets  where  he  lived  the  rest  of  his  life.  Here 
he  hung  out,  as  a  sign  of  his  trade,  the  blue 
ball,  about  the  size  of  a  cocoanut,  which  now 
reposes  in  the  old  State  House,  Boston. 

Although  there  were  so  many  children 
swarming  in  that  little  house  on  Hanover 
street,  with  its  parlour  and  dining  room  close 
behind  the  shop,  it  was  not  a  bit  too  crowded. 
Franklin  in  his  Autobiography  records  that 
he  well  remembers  "  thirteen  sitting  at  one 
time  at  his  father's  table  who  all  grew  up  to 
be  men  and  women  and  married."  There  were 
many  visitors,  too,  in  the  living-room  back  of 
the  shop,  because  Josiah  Franklin  had  sturdy 
common  sense  and  so  was  sought  out  by  "  lead- 
ing people  who  consulted  him  for  his  opinion 
in  the  affairs  of  the  town  or  the  church  he 
belonged  to  and  showed  a  good  deal  of  respect 
for  his  judgment  and  advise." 

The  life  led  by  the  Franklins  we  may  well 
enough  take  to  be  a  type  of  that  lived  in  hun- 


franklin's  birthplace 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   239 

dreds  of  self-respecting  families  of  that  day. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  work,  a  great  deal 
of  church-going  and  considerable  hardship  of 
a  healthy  kind.  But  there  were  pleasures,  too, 
chief  among  them  being  that  of  hospitality: 
"  My  father,"  Franklin  tells  us,  "  liked  to 
have  at  his  table,  as  often  as  he  could,  some 
sensible  friend  or  neighbour  to  converse  with, 
and  always  took  care  to  start  some  ingenious 
or  useful  topic  for  discourse,  which  might  tend 
to  improve  the  minds  of  his  children.  By  this 
means  he  turned  our  attention  to  what  was 
good,  just  and  prudent  in  the  conduct  of  life; 
and  little  or  no  notice  was  ever  taken  of  what 
related  to  the  victuals  on  the  table,  ...  so 
that  I  was  brought  up  in  such  a  perfect  inat- 
tention to  those  matters  as  to  be  quite  indif- 
ferent what  kind  of  food  was  set  before  me, 
and  so  unobservant  of  it  to  this  day,  that  if 
I  am  asked  I  can  scarce  tell  a  few  hours  after 
dinner  what  I  dined  upon."  We  can  the  more 
readily,  after  reading  this,  accept  as  authentic 
an  anecdote  told  by  the  grandson  of  Franklin 
to  the  effect  that,  one  day,  after  the  winter's 
provision  of  salt  fish  had  been  prepared,  Ben- 
jamin observed,  "  I  think,  father,  if  you  were 
to  say  grace  over  the  whole  cask  once  for  all, 
it  would  be  a  vast  saving  of  time." 


240  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Josiah  Franklin,  like  every  other  good 
Christian  of  his  day,  wished  to  give  at  least 
one  son  to  the  order  of  the  sacred  ministry, 
and  Benjamin,  being  his  tenth  child,  was  sin- 
gled out  for  this  distinction.  The  boy  was, 
therefore,  sent  at  the  age  of  eight  to  the  gram- 
mar school,  where  in  less  than  a  year  he  had 
risen  gradually  from  the  middle  of  the  class 
in  which  he  entered  to  the  head  of  the  class 
above.  But  business  at  the  sign  of  the  blue 
ball  was  now  less  brisk  than  heretofore  and 
Father  Franklin  began  reluctantly  to  confess 
that  he  could  see  no  chance  of  providing  a  col- 
lege training  for  the  boy.  A  commercial  edu- 
cation would  bring  quicker  returns  than  that 
provided  by  the  grammar  school.  Accord- 
ingly, the  lad  was  placed  in  an  institution  es- 
pecially designed  for  the  teaching  of  writing 
and  arithmetic.  Here  Franklin  "  acquired 
fair  writing  pretty  soon  "  but  failed  in  arith- 
metic. So,  since  the  family  fortunes  would  not 
permit  of  his  being  a  clergyman  and  failure 
in  arithmetic  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  be 
a  clerk,  Benjamin  was  "  taken  home  at  ten  to 
assist  in  the  business."  This  occupation  he 
utterly  loathed  and,  in  truth,  cutting  candle- 
wicks  and  filling  candle-molds  with  tallow  must 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   241 

have  been  sad  drudgery  to  this  imaginative 
book-loving  lad  of  twelve. 

Besides,  he  longed  to  run  away  to  sea.  Born 
and  bred  in  a  seafaring  town,  and  accustomed 
from  earliest  childhood  to  rowing  and  sailing, 
nothing  delighted  him  so  much  as  adventures 
smacking  of  the  salt  water.  One  Franklin  boy 
already  had  run  away  to  sea,  however,  and 
been  cut  off,  as  a  result,  from  the  family  home 
and  hearth.  Josiah  Franklin  determined  that, 
if  he  could  help  it,  he  would  not  lose  his  young- 
est son  in  the  same  way.  Accordingly,  when 
he  found  that  nothing  would  make  the  lad  rec- 
onciled to  soap-making,  he  set  about  fitting  him 
to  another  calling. 

After  a  round  had  been  made  of  the  various 
shops,  it  was  settled  that  Ben  be  apprenticed 
as  a  printer  to  his  elder  brother  James,  who 
had  then  (1717)  just  returned  from  learning 
this  trade  in  London.  With  this  idea  Benja- 
min fell  in  the  more  readily  by  reason  of  his 
already  great  fondness  for  books. 

11  From  a  child,"  he  tells  us  in  the  Auto- 
biography, "  I  was  fond  of  reading,  and  all 
the  little  money  that  came  into  my  hands  was 
ever  laid  out  in  books.  Pleased  with  the  '  Pil- 
grim's Progress,'  my  first  collection  was  of 
John  Bunyan's  works  in   separate  little  vol- 


242  St.  Botolph's  Town 

umes.  I  afterward  sold  them  to  enable  me  to 
buy  R.  Burton's  historical  collections.  They 
were  small  chapmen's  books,  and  cheap,  forty 
or  fifty  in  all.  .  .  .  Plutarch's  '  Lives  '  there 
was,  in  which  I  read  abundantly,  and  I  still 
think  that  time  spent  to  great  advantage. 

"  This  bookish  inclination  at  last  deter- 
mined my  father  to  make  me  a  printer.  .  .  . 
I  stood  out  some  time,  but  at  last  was  per- 
suaded, and  signed  the  indentures  when  I  was 
yet  but  twelve  years  old.  I  was  to  serve  as  an 
apprentice  till  I  was  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
only  I  was  to  be  allowed  journeyman's  wages 
during  the  last  year.  In  a  little  time  I  made 
great  proficiency  in  the  business,  and  became 
a  useful  hand  to  my  brother. 

"  I  now  had  access  to  better  books.  An  ac- 
quaintance with  the  apprentices  of  booksellers 
enabled  me  sometimes  to  borrow  a  small  one, 
which  I  was  careful  to  return  soon  and  clean. 
Often  I  sat  up  in  my  room  reading  the  greatest 
part  of  the  night,  when  the  book  was  borrowed 
in  the  evening  and  to  be  returned  early  in  the 
morning,  lest  it  should  be  missed  or  wanted. 

"  And  after  some  time  an  ingenious  trades- 
man, Mr.  Matthew  Adams,  who  had  a  pretty 
collection  of  books,  and  who  frequented  our 
printing-house,  took  notice  of  me,  invited  me 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   243 

to  his  library,  and  very  kindly  lent  me  such 
books  as  I  chose  to  read.  I  now  took  a  fancy 
to  poetry  and  made  some  little  pieces.  My 
brother,  thinking  it  might  turn  to  account,  en- 
couraged me,  and  put  me  on  composing  occa- 
sional ballads.  One  was  called  '  The  Light- 
house Tragedy,'  and  contained  an  account  of 
the  drowning  of  Capt.  "Worthilake  with  his  two 
daughters.  The  other  was  a  sailor's  song  on 
the  taking  of  Teach  (or  Blackbeard)  the  pirate. 
They  were  wretched  stuff,  in  the  Grub-Street- 
ballad  style;  and,  when  they  were  printed,  he 
sent  me  about  the  town  to  sell  them.  The  first 
sold  wonderfully,  the  event  being  recent,  hav- 
ing made  a  great  noise.  This  flattered  my  van- 
ity; but  my  father  discouraged  me  by  ridicu- 
ling my  performances,  and  telling  me  verse- 
makers  were  generally  beggars.  So  I  escaped 
being  a  poet,  most  probably  a  very  bad  one." 

But  he  taught  himself  to  write  excellent  Eng- 
lish prose  by  modelling  his  style  upon  that  of 
Addison  and  Steele. 

"  About  this  time  I  met  with  an  odd  volume 
of  the  Spectator.  It  was  the  third.  I  had 
never  before  seen  any  of  them.  I  bought  it, 
read  it  over  and  over,  and  was  much  delighted 
with  it.  I  thought  the  writing  excellent,  and 
wished,  if  possible,  to  imitate  it.     With  this 


244  St.  Botolph's  Town 

view  I  took  some  of  the  papers,  and,  making 
short  hints  of  the  sentiment  in  each  sentence, 
laid  them  by  a  few  days,  and  then,  without 
looking  at  the  book,  tried  to  complete  the  pa- 
pers again  by  expressing  each  hinted  sentiment 
at  length,  and  as  fully  as  it  had  been  expressed 
before,  in  any  suitable  words  that  should  come 
to  hand. 

"  Then  I  compared  my  Spectator  with  the 
original,  discovered  some  of  my  faults,  and 
corrected  them.  But  I  found  I  wanted  a  stock 
of  words,  or  a  readiness  in  recollecting  and 
using  them,  which  I  thought  I  should  have  ac- 
quired before  that  time  if  I  had  gone  on  mak- 
ing verses,  since  the  continual  occasion  for 
words  of  the  same  import,  to  suit  the  measure, 
or  of  different  sound  for  the  rhyme,  would 
have  laid  me  under  a  constant  necessity  of 
searching  for  variety,  and  also  have  tended  to 
fix  that  variety  in  my  mind  and  make  me  mas- 
ter of  it.  Therefore  I  took  some  of  the  tales 
and  turned  them  into  verse;  and,  after  a  time, 
when  I  had  pretty  well  forgotten  the  prose, 
turned  them  back  again.  I  also  sometimes 
jumbled  my  collection  of  hints  into  confusion, 
and  after  some  weeks  endeavoured  to  reduce 
them  into  the  best  order,  before  I  began  to 
form  the  full  sentences  and  complete  the  paper, 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood  245 


This  was  to  teach  me  method  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  thoughts. 

"  By  comparing  my  work  afterward  with 
the  original,  I  discovered  many  faults  and 
amended  them ;  but  I  sometimes  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  fancying  that,  in  certain  particulars  of 
small  import,  I  had  been  lucky  enough  to  im- 
prove the  method  or  the  language,  and  this 
encouraged  me  to  think  that  I  might  possibly 
in  time  come  to  be  a  tolerable  English  writer, 
of  which  I  was  extremely  ambitious.  My  time 
for  these  exercises  and  for  reading  was  at 
night  after  work  or  before  it  began  in  the 
morning,  or  on  Sundays,  when  I  contrived  to 
be  in  the  printing-house  alone,  evading  as  much 
as  I  could  the  common  attendance  on  public 
worship,  which  my  father  used  to  exact  of  me 
when  I  was  under  his  care,  and  which,  indeed, 
I  still  thought  a  duty,  though  I  could  not,  as 
it  seemed  to  me,  afford  time  to  practise  it." 

Additional  time  —  and  additional  money,  too 
—  for  the  indulgence  of  his  love  of  books  came 
to  Franklin  about  this  time  through  his  adop- 
tion of  a  vegetarian  diet.  Meat  had  always 
been  rather  disagreeable  to  him,  so  he  pro- 
posed to  his  brother  that  he  should  give  him 
weekly  half  the  money  paid  for  his  board,  and 
let  him  board  himself.     His  brother  agreeing, 


246  St.  Botolph's  Town 

he  had  opportunity,  while  the  others  were  at 
meals,  to  be  alone  in  the  printing-house  with 
his  books. 

"  Despatching  presently  my  light  repast, 
which  often  was  no  more  than  a  biscuit  or  a 
slice  of  bread,"  he  writes,  "  a  handful  of  rai- 
sins or  a  tart  from  the  pastry-cook,  and  a  glass 
of  water,  I  had  the  rest  of  the  time  for  study, 
in  which  I  made  the  greater  progress  from  that 
greater  clearness  of  head  and  quicker  appre- 
hension which  usually  attend  temperance  in 
eating  and  drinking." 

Sixteen  years  before  that  Sunday  morning 
when  the  baby  Benjamin  was  born  the  first 
American  newspaper  had  been  printed  in  Bos- 
ton. It  was  a  sheet  of  four  pages,  seven  inches 
by  eleven,  with  two  columns  on  a  page,  and  at 
the  top  of  the  first  page  the  words,  "  Publich 
Occurrences,  both  Foreign  and  Domestic," 
printed  in  large  letters.  It  was  designed  to 
be  published  once  a  month,  or  of tener,  ' '  if  any 
glut  of  occurrences  happened." 

By  reason  of  an  unfortunate  allusion  in  the 
first  number  to  a  political  misunderstanding 
between  those  in  high  authority,  Publich  Oc- 
currences died,  immediately  after  its  initial 
issue.  No  successor  appeared  until  1704,  when 
John  Campbell,  postmaster  of  Boston,  a  dull, 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood  247 

ignorant  Scottish  bookseller,  began  to  put  out 
a  weekly  sheet  called  the  Boston  News-Letter, 
which  was  for  many  years  the  only  newspaper 
in  America. 

Newspapers  went  free  of  postage  in  those 
days.  It  was  quite  natural,  therefore,  that  the 
publishing  privilege  should  fall  into  the  hands 
of  postmasters.  Usually  when  a  postmaster 
lost  his  office  he  sold  out  his  newspaper  to  his 
successor;  but  when  John  Campbell  ceased  to 
preside  over  the  Boston  mails,  he  refused  to 
dispose  of  his  paper,  a  fact  which  induced  his 
successor,  William  Brocker,  to  set  up,  in  De- 
cember, 1719,  a  sheet  of  his  own,  the  Boston 
Gazette.  This  paper  James  Franklin  was  em- 
ployed to  print. 

Postmasters  in  those  days  were,  of  course, 
appointed  from  England,  and  before  Brocker 
had  been  in  office  many  months  he  found  him- 
self in  turn  superseded.  James  Franklin,  how- 
ever, having  incurred  some  expense  for  the 
sake  of  printing  the  Gazette  and  being  en- 
amoured of  publishing,  determined  that  he 
would  now  start  a  paper  of  his  own.  It  thus 
came  about  that  on  August  7,  1721,  appeared 
the  first  number  of  the  New  England  Courant. 

The  papers  previously  published  in  the  col- 
ony had  been  either  very  dull  or  very  pious. 


248  St.  Botolph's  Town 

But  this  journal,  from  the  beginning,  showed 
the  trenchant  pen  and  free  mind  which  appears 
to  have  been  a  Franklin  habit.  The  Mathers 
did  not  at  all  approve  of  it,  and  the  boy  Ben- 
jamin probably  had  no  need  to  stop  at  their 
door  when  he  "  carried  the  papers  through  the 
streets  to  the  customers,"  after  having  set  up 
the  type  with  his  own  hands  and  printed  the 
sheets  from  the  old  press  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Bostonian  Society. 

The  fortunes  of  this  paper,  and  of  Franklin 
while  connected  with  it,  have  been  better  told 
by  the  person  chiefly  concerned  than  I  could 
ever  tell  them.  Hear  him  then :  ' '  My  brother 
had  some  ingenious  men  among  his  friends, 
who  amused  themselves  by  writing  little  pieces 
for  this  paper,  which  gained  it  credit  and  made 
it  more  in  demand,  and  these  gentlemen  often 
visited  us.  Hearing  their  conversations,  and 
their  accounts  of  the  approbation  their  papers 
were  received  with,  I  was  excited  to  try  my 
hand  among  them;  but,  being  still  a  boy,  and 
suspecting  that  my  brother  would  object  to 
printing  anything  of  mine  in  his  paper  if  he 
knew  it  to  be  mine,  I  contrived  to  disguise  my 
hand,  and,  writing  an  anonymous  paper,  I  put 
it  at  night  under  the  door  of  the  printing-house. 

"  It  was  found  in  the  morning,  and  commu- 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   249 

nicated  to  his  writing  friends  when  they  called 
in  as  usual.  They  read  it,  commented  on  it  in 
my  hearing,  and  I  had  the  exquisite  pleasure 
of  finding  it  met  with  their  approbation,  and 
that,  in  their  different  guesses  at  the  author, 
none  were  named  but  men  of  some  character 
among  us  for  learning  and  ingenuity.  I  sup- 
pose now  that  I  was  rather  lucky  in  my  judges, 
and  that  perhaps  they  were  not  really  so  very 
good  ones  as  I  then  esteemed  them. 

"  Encouraged,  however,  by  this,  I  wrote  and 
conveyed  in  the  same  way  to  the  press  several 
more  papers  which  were  equally  approved; 
and  I  kept  my  secret  till  my  small  fund  of  sense 
for  such  performances  was  pretty  well  ex- 
hausted, and  then  I  discovered  it,  when  I  began 
to  be  considered  a  little  more  by  my  brother's 
acquaintance,  and  in  a  manner  that  did  not 
quite  please  him,  as  he  thought  —  probably 
with  reason  —  that  it  tended  to  make  me  too 
vain.  And  perhaps  this  might  be  one  occasion 
of  the  differences  that  we  began  to  have  about 
this  time. 

"  Though  a  brother,  he  considered  himself 
as  my  master  and  me  as  his  apprentice,  and 
accordingly  expected  the  same  services  from 
me  as  he  would  from  another,  while  I  thought 
he  demeaned  me  too  much  in  some  things  he 


250  St.  Botolph's  Town 

required  of  me,  who  from  a  brother  expected 
more  indulgence.  Our  disputes  were  often 
brought  before  our  father,  and  I  fancy  I  was 
either  generally  in  the  right  or  else  a  better 
pleader,  because  the  judgment  was  generally 
in  my  favour.  But  my  brother  was  passionate, 
and  had  often  beaten  me,  which  I  took  ex- 
tremely amiss;  and,  thinking  my  apprentice- 
ship was  very  tedious,  I  was  continually  wish- 
ing for  some  opportunity  of  shortening  it, 
which  at  length  offered  in  a  manner  unex- 
pected. (I  fancy  his  harsh  and  tyrannical 
treatment  of  me  might  be  a  means  of  impress- 
ing me  with  that  aversion  to  arbitrary  power 
that  has  stuck  to  me  through  my  whole  life.) 

"  One  of  the  pieces  in  our  newspaper  on 
some  political  point,  which  I  have  now  forgot- 
ten, gave  offence  to  the  Assembly.  He  was 
taken  up,  censured,  and  imprisoned  for  a 
month,  by  the  speaker's  warrant,  I  suppose, 
because  he  would  not  discover  his  author.  I, 
too,  was  taken  up  and  examined  before  the 
council;  but,  though  I  did  not  give  them  any 
satisfaction,  they  contented  themselves  with 
admonishing  me,  and  dismissed  me  perhaps  as 
an  apprentice  who  was  bound  to  keep  his  mas- 
ter's secrets. 

"  During  my  brother's  confinement,  which  I 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   251 

resented  a  good  deal,  notwithstanding  our 
private  differences,  I  had  the  management  of 
the  paper ;  and  I  made  bold  to  give  our  rulers 
some  rubs  in  it,  which  my  brother  took  very 
kindly,  while  others  began  to  consider  me  in 
an  unfavourable  light,  as  a  young  genius  that 
had  a  turn  for  libelling  and  satire.  My 
brother's  discharge  was  accompanied  with  an 
order  from  the  House  (a  very  odd  one)  that 
1  James    Franklin    should    no    longer    print 

THE    PAPER    CALLED    THE    "  NEW    ENGLAND    CoU- 

rant,"  except  it  be  first  supervised  by  the 
Secretary  of  this  Province.  ' 

"  There  was  a  consultation  held  in  our 
printing-house  among  his  friends  what  he 
should  do  in  this  case.  Some  proposed  to 
evade  the  order  by  changing  the  name  of  the 
paper;  but  my  brother  seeing  inconveniences 
in  that,  it  was  finally  concluded  on,  as  a  better 
way,  to  let  it  be  printed  for  the  future  under 
the  name  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  And,  to 
avoid  the  censure  of  the  Assembly  that  might 
fall  on  him  as  still  printing  it  by  his  appren- 
tice, the  contrivance  was  that  my  old  indenture 
should  be  returned  to  me,  with  a  full  discharge 
on  the  back  of  it,  to  be  shown  on  occasion ;  but, 
to  secure  to  him  the  benefit  of  my  service,  I 
was  to  sign  new  indentures  for  the  remainder 


252  St.  Botolph's  Town 

of  the  term,  which  were  to  be  kept  private.  A 
very  flimsy  scheme  it  was.  However,  it  was 
immediately  executed,  and  the  paper  went  on 
accordingly  under  my  name  for  several 
months." 

The  next  number  of  the  Courant  announced 
that  "  the  late  Publisher  of  this  Paper,  finding 
so  many  Inconveniences  would  arise  by  his 
carrying  the  Manuscripts  and  publick  News  to 
be  supervis'd  by  the  Secretary  as  to  render  his 
carrying  it  on  unprofitable,  has  intirely  dropt 
the  Undertaking." 

Possibly  the  display  of  his  own  name  in  big 
type  as  publisher  of  a  newspaper  bred  in  Ben- 
jamin something  more  of  self-importance  than 
he  had  hitherto  had.  In  any  case,  he  and  his 
brother  got  on  very  badly  after  this.  There 
were  knocks  and  cuffs  and  general  unbrotherly 
treatment,  which  Benjamin,  as  a  high-spirited 
lad,  soon  found  unendurable.  These  blows  had 
the  effect,  too,  of  inspiring  in  the  younger 
Franklin  a  determination  to  be  tricky,  —  just 
as  his  brother  had  been  with  the  authorities. 
So  "  a  fresh  difference  arising  between  us  two 
I  took  upon  me  to  assert  my  freedom,  presu- 
ming that  he  would  not  venture  to  produce  the 
new  indentures.  It  was  not  fair  in  me  to  take 
this  advantage,  and  this  I  therefore  reckon  one 


The  Boston  of  Franklin's  Boyhood   253 

of  the  first  errata  of  my  life;  but  the  unfair- 
ness of  it  weighed  little  with  me  when  under 
the  impressions  of  resentment  for  the  blows 
his  passion  too  often  urged  him  to  bestow  upon 
me,  though  he  was  otherwise  not  an  ill-natured 
man.    Perhaps  I  was  too  saucy  and  provoking. 

"  When  he  found  I  would  leave  him,  he  took 
care  to  prevent  my  getting  employment  in  any 
other  printing-house  of  the  town,  by  going 
round  and  speaking  to  every  master,  who  ac- 
cordingly refused  to  give  me  work.  I  then 
thought  of  going  to  New  York  as  the  nearest 
place  where  there  was  a  printer.  .  .  .  My 
friend  Collins,  therefore,  undertook  to  manage 
a  little  for  me.  He  agreed  with  the  captain  of 
a  New  York  sloop  for  my  passage.  So  I  sold 
some  of  my  books  to  raise  a  little  money,  was 
taken  on  board  privately,  and,  as  we  had  a  fair 
wind,  in  three  days  I  found  myself  in  New 
York,  near  three  hundred  miles  from  home,  a 
boy  of  but  seventeen,  without  the  least  recom- 
mendation to  or  knowledge  of  any  person  in 
the  place,  and  with  very  little  money  in  my 
pocket. ' ' 

Franklin  had  now  left  for  ever  the  Boston  of 
his  boyhood.  Not  many  times  in  his  life,  in- 
deed, did  he  return  there.  But,  when  a  famous 
man,  he  wrote,  to  be  placed  over  the  graves  of 


254  St.  Botolph's  Town 

his  parents  in  the  old  Granary  burying  ground, 
this  epitaph  which  touchingly  connects,  for  all 
time,  his  talents  with  the  city  of  his  birth : 

Josiah  Franklin 

and 
Abiah,  his  wife, 
Lie  here  interred. 
They  lived  lovingly  together  in  wedlock 
Fifty-five  years. 
And  without  an  estate  or  any  gainful  employ- 
ment, 
By  constant  labour  and  honest  industry, 
Maintained  a  large  family  comfortably, 
And  brought  up  thirteen  children  and  seven 
grandchildren  reputably. 
From  this  instance,  reader, 
Be  encouraged  to  diligence  in  thy  calling, 
And  distrust  not  Providence. 
He  was  a  pious  and  prudent  man  ; 
She  a  discreet  and  virtuous  woman. 
Their  youngest  son, 
In  filial  regard  to  their  memory, 
Places  this  stone. 


SAMUEL    SKWALL 


XII 

A   PURITAN   PEPYS 

What  the  Diary  of  Samuel  Pepys  is  to  sev- 
enteenth century  England  the  Diary  of  Samuel 
Sewall  is  to  the  Boston  of  the  Puritan  era. 
This  invaluable  contribution  to  New  England 
literature  covers  more  than  fifty-five  years  of 
old  Boston  life  and  covers  it,  too,  at  a  time 
when  that  life  was  putting  itself  into  form.  It 
is  therefore  a  rich  mine  of  history,  a  veritable 
storehouse  of  old  ways  and  social  customs. 
The  man  who  wrote  it  was  a  part  of  all  that 
he  met  and  he  was,  besides,  a  red-blooded 
healthy-minded  human  being  in  an  age  which 
too  many  people  think  wholly  given  over  to 
disagreeable  asceticism.  We  cannot  do  better, 
then,  than  follow  for  a  chapter  Sewall 's  varied 
career  as  he  himself  traces  it  for  us  in  the  vivid 
pages  of  his  mental  and  spiritual  day-book. 

At  the  outset  we  must  do  the  old  judge  the 
justice  to  believe  that,  —  to  him,  —  New  Eng- 
land was  a  colony  with  a  mission.    In  a  speech 

255 


256  St.  Botolph's  Town 

made  in  1723  after  Lieutenant-Governor  Dum- 
mer  had  taken  the  oath  of  office  he  said :  ' '  The 
people  you  have  to  do  with  are  a  part  of  the 
Israel  of  God  and  you  may  expect  to  have  of 
the  prudence  and  patience  of  Moses  communi- 
cated to  you  for  your  conduct.  It  is  evident 
that  our  Almighty  Saviour  counselled  the  first 
planters  to  remove  hither  and  settle  here ;  and 
they  dutifully  followed  his  advice;  and  there- 
fore he  will  never  leave  nor  forsake  them  nor 
theirs."  All  his  life  long  Sewall  strove  to  help 
the  Lord  do  the  work  he  felt  to  be  marked  out 
for  the  Puritans.  We  must  bear  this  in  mind 
when  the  judge  of  the  witches  seems  narrow 
to  us.  But  he  does  not  often  so  seem  for  he 
was  a  generous-minded  man,  temperamentally 
and  physically  easy-going  in  spite  of  his  Puri- 
tan training.  The  Reverend  N.  H.  Chamber- 
lain, who  has  written  most  entertainingly  of 
"  Sewall  and  the  World  He  Lived  In  "  attrib- 
utes the  endearing  qualities  of  his  hero  to  the 
fact  that  he  was  much  more  Saxon  than  Dane, 
and  came  from  the  English  South  Land  where 
the  sun  is  warmer  than  in  the  North,  the  gar- 
dens and  orchards  fuller. 

Moreover,  none  of  the  Sewalls  had  suffered 
from  persecution.  Samuel's  great-grand- 
father,  beyond  whom   the   family   cannot  be 


A  Puritan  Pepys  257 

traced,  made  a  fortune  as  a  linen-draper  at 
Coventry  and  was  several  times  elected  mayor. 
His  life  was  then  an  eminently  successful  one. 
The  mayor's  eldest  son,  however,  was  a  Puri- 
tan of  such  strong  convictions  that  he  sent 
SewalPs  father,  Henry,  to  New  England.  But 
the  climate  of  Newbury,  where  Henry  Sewall 
took  up  land,  did  not  agree  with  the  family  and 
they  returned  to  the  mother  country.  Thus  it 
happened  that  Samuel  Sewall  was  born  in 
Bishopstoke,  Hampshire,  England,  in  1647  and 
spent  the  impressionable  years  of  his  young 
life  in  a  background  where  orchards  flourished 
mightily,  where  cock-fighting  was  a  favourite 
sport  and  where  roast  beef  and  attendant  good 
things  exercised  a  potent  formative  influence. 
When  the  boy  Samuel  was  nine  the  family 
returned  to  America.  His  account  of  their 
landing  at  Boston  is  given  thus  naively:  "  We 
were  about  eight  weeks  at  sea  where  we  had 
nothing  to  see  but  water  and  sky;  so  that  I 
began  to  fear  that  I  should  never  get  to  shore 
again;  only  I  thought  the  captains  and  the 
mariners  would  not  have  ventured  themselves, 
if  they  had  not  hopes  of  getting  to  land  again. 
On  the  Lord's  Day  my  mother  kept  aboard; 
but  I  went  ashore;  the  boat  grounded  and  I 
was  carried  out  in  arms,  July  6,  1661." 


258  St.  Botolph's  Town 

The  future  Diarist  was  educated  at  his 
father's  house  in  Newbury  by  a  private  tutor 
and  at  Harvard  College,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  1671.  Three  years  later  he  took 
his  master's  degree,  an  occasion  which  he  de- 
scribed thus  in  a  letter  written  to  his  son, 
Joseph,  when  he  (Sewall)  was  a  grown  man: 
"  In  1674  I  took  my  second  degree  and  Mrs. 
Hannah  Hull,  my  dear  wife,  your  honoured 
mother  was  invited  by  Doctor  Hoar  and  his 
lady  (her  kinsfolk)  to  be  with  them  awhile  at 
Cambridge.  She  saw  me  when  I  took  my  de- 
gree and  set  her  affection  on  me,  though  I 
knew  nothing  of  it  until  after  our  marriage 
which  was  February  28,  1675-76.  Governor 
Bradstreet  married  us."  Sewall's  thesis  on 
this  interesting  commencement  day  was  a 
Latin  discourse  on  original  sin! 

For  of  course  the  young  man  was  ministeri- 
ally minded  and,  at  this  stage  of  his  career, 
bade  fair  to  follow  the  profession  of  most  Har- 
vard men  of  the  day.  Very  likely,  too,  he 
would  have  kept  on  with  his  preaching  but  for 
the  fact  that,  after  a  supplementary  year  or 
two  at  Cambridge,  it  was  made  easy  for  him 
to  enter  the  business  and  the  family  of  John 
Hull,  the  New  England  mint-master.  Hull  was 
now  old  and  Sewall  seems  to  have  been  en- 


A  Puritan  Pepys  259 

trusted,  almost  at  once,  with  the  correspond- 
ence appertaining  to  the  merchant  branch  of 
his  profession.  Ere  long  the  Diarist  is  im- 
porting and  exporting  on  his  own  account. 

First,  though,  came  his  marriage  with  the 
bouncing  Hannah  Hull,  a  lady  whose  weight 
played  a  more  important  part  in  her  charms, 
than  has  been  the  case  with  any  other  hero- 
ine of  romance.  Hawthorne  is  chiefly  respon- 
sible for  this,  of  course,  for  he  has  described 
in  fascinating  fashion  the  marriage  of  Sewall 
to  this,  his  first  wife.  But  if  Sewall  did 
get  his  wife's  weight  in  pine-tree  shillings 
when  he  got  her  he  had  not  stipulated  for  this 
or  any  other  dowry.  "  The  mint-master  was 
especially  pleased  with  his  new  son-in-law  be- 
cause he  had  courted  Miss  Betsy  out  of  pure 
love,"  we  are  told,  "  and  had  said  nothing  at 
all  about  her  portion."  It  is  good  for  us  to 
remember  this  passage  when  we  read  the  story 
of  Judge  SewalPs  later  courtships. 

About  a  year  after  his  marriage  Sewall 
joined  the  Old  South  Church  and  having  ful- 
filled this  pre-requisite  to  citizenship,  he  was 
(in  1678)  made  a  freeman.  In  1681  he  was 
appointed  master  of  the  public  printing-press, 
an  office  which  he  held  for  some  three  years 
printing  public  and  religious  documents,  and 


260  St.  Botolph's  Town 

especially  the  Assembly's  Catechism,  five  hun- 
dred copies  of  which  he  gave  away  to  the  chil- 
dren of  his  relations.  Sewall  had  now  gone  to 
live  at  Cotton  Hill,  on  Tremont  street,  almost 
opposite  King's  Chapel  burying  ground,  on 
property  which  once  belonged  to  Sir  Harry 
Vane.  In  the  colony  records  we  find  (1684) :  — 
"  In  answer  of  the  petition  of  Sam'  Sewall 
Esq,  humbly  showing  that  his  house  of  wood 
in  Boston,  at  the  hill  where  the  Bevd  John 
Cotton  former  dwelt,  which  house  is  consider- 
ably distant  from  other  building  and  standeth 
very  bleak,  he  humbly  desiring  the  favour  of 
this  court  to  grant  him  liberty  to  build  a  small 
porch  of  wood,  about  seven  foot  square,  to 
break  off  the  wind  from  the  fore  door  of  said 
house,  the  court  grants  his  request." 

A  pleasant  glimpse  of  the  social  life  of  the 
period  is  gained  from  an  entry  made  in  the 
Diary  the  spring  following  the  building  of  this 
porch:  "  June  20,  Carried  my  wife  to  Dor- 
chester to  eat  Cherries  and  Raspberries,  chiefly 
to  ride  and  take  the  air;  the  time  my  wife  and 
Mrs.  Flint  spent  in  the  orchard  I  spent  in  Mr. 
Flint's  study  reading  Calvin  on  the  Psalms.' ' 
The  following  January  he  tells  us  that  the  cold 
was  so  extreme  that  the  "  harbour  is  frozen  up 
and  to  the  Castle,  so  cold  that  the  sacramental 


A  Puritan  Pepys  261 

bread  is  frozen  pretty  bad  and  rattles  sadly  as 
broken  into  the  plates." 

From  November,  1688,  to  November,  1689, 
Sewall  was  abroad  combining  with  the  business 
of  helping  Increase  Mather  make  terms  with 
the  King's  government  the  pleasure  of  renew- 
ing family  friendships  in  the  land  of  his  birth. 
There  was  naturally  a  good  deal  of  sermon- 
hearing  mingled  with  these  occupations  and 
we  find  one  excellent  description  of  the  fashion 
in  which  the  Lord's  supper  was  administered 
in  England  at  the  church  of  that  Dr.  Annesley 
of  whom  we  have  already  heard  as  Dunton's 
father-in-law.  "  The  Dr.  went  all  over  the 
meeting  first,  to  see  who  was  there,  then  spake 
something  of  the  sermon,  then  read  the  words 
of  institution,  then  prayed  and  eat  and  drunk 
himself,  then  gave  to  every  one  with  his  own 
hand,  dropping  pertinent  expressions.  In  our 
pew  said,  '  Now  our  Spikenard  should  give  its 
smell;  '  and  said  to  me  '  Remember  the  death 
of  Christ.'  The  wine  was  in  quart  glass  bot- 
tles. The  deacon  followed  the  Doctor  and 
when  his  cup  was  empty  filled  it  again;  as  at 
our  pew  all  had  drunk  but  I,  he  filled  the  cup 
and  then  gave  it  to  me ;  said  as  he  gave  it  — 
must  be  ready  in  new  obedience  and  stick  at 
nothing  for  Christ." 


262  St.  Botolph's  Town 

To  Cambridge  and  to  Oxford,  the  colleges 
where  many  of  the  Puritan  preachers  had  been 
educated,  Sewall  made  pious  pilgrimages  with 
Mather  and  between  whiles  he  ate  and  drank 
with  his  numerous  relatives.  At  "  Cousin 
Jane  Holt's  "  he  had  "  good  bacon,  veal  and 
parsnips,  very  good  shoulder  of  mutton  and  a 
fowl  roasted,  good  currant  suet  pudding  and 
the  fairest  dish  of  apples  I  have  eat  in  Eng- 
land." 

But  he  was  very  glad  to  get  back  to  Boston 
for  that  city  was  now  his  dear  home  and  he 
was  one  of  its  most  useful  citizens.  In  1683  he 
is  a  deputy  to  the  General  Court  from  West- 
field,  as  his  father-in-law,  John  Hull,  had  been 
before  him  —  it  being  then  possible  for  a  man 
to  be  elected  from  a  town  other  than  that  in 
which  he  lived  —  and  he  belonged  to  the  Bos- 
ton Fire  Department  and  to  the  Police  and 
Watch.  In  business  he  was  prospering  might- 
ily and  so  was  able  May  23,  1693,  to  lay  the 
corner-stone  of  his  new  house,  next  Cotton 
Hill,  "  with  stones  gotten  out  of  the  Common." 
Two  years  later  we  find  the  house  completed 
and  Governor  Bradstreet  "  drinking  a  glass  or 
two  of  wine,  eating  some  fruit  and  taking  a 
pipe  or  two  of  tobacco  "  under  its  substantial 


A  Puritan  Pepys  263 

roof.  "  Wished  me  joy  of  the  house  and  de- 
sired our  prayers,"  comments  the  Diary. 

Picnics  and  weddings  were  favourite  diver- 
sions with  Sewall.  The  Diary  records  one  fes- 
tivity of  the  former  class  held  Oct.  1,  1697,  the 
refreshments  for  which  consisted  of  "  first, 
honey,  butter  curds  and  cream.  For  dinner 
very  good  roast  lamb,  turkey,  fowls  and  apple 
pie.  After  dinner  sung  the  121  Psalm.  A 
glass  of  spirits  my  wife  sent  stood  upon  a  joint 
stool  which  Simon  "W.  jogging  it  fell  down  and 
broke  all  to  shivers.  I  said  it  was  a  lively 
emblem  of  our  fragility  and  mortality." 

Not  long  after  this  our  Diarist  attended  the 
wedding  of  Atherton  Haugh,  his  ward,  and 
Mercy  Winthrop,  daughter  of  Deane  "Winthrop, 
at  the  latter 's  house  which  still  stands  in  the 
town  bearing  his  name.  "  Sang  a  Psalm  to- 
gether," writes  Sewall  in  describing  the  occa- 
sion. "  I  set  St.  David's  tune."  None  of  the 
many  duties  which  Sewall  discharged  was  bet- 
ter done  than  that  which  had  to  do  with  settling 
his  young  people  in  life.  On  several  occasions 
we  find  the  Diary  saying:  "  Prayed  for  good 
matches  for  my  children  as  they  grow  up ;  that 
they  may  be  equally  yoked."  It  was  the  Puri- 
tan habit  to  marry,  not  once,  but  several  times, 


264  St.  Botolph's  Town 

if  death  came  to  separate.  Instances  of  old 
maids  were  very  rare  and  those  of  old  bachelors 
even  more  so.  (Stoughton  stands  almost  alone 
among  Puritan  worthies  as  a  man  who  never 
took  unto  himself  a  wife.)  The  elders  on  the 
man's  side  seem  to  have  had  a  custom  of  send- 
ing a  suitable  present  to  the  lady's  parent  as 
a  sign  that  Barkis  was  "  willin'."  If  the 
match  was  to  be  refused  the  present  was  very 
likely  returned.  This  custom  may  be  held  to 
explain  the  following  rather  blind  letter  of 
Sewall's: 

"  Boston,  Jan.  13,  1701. 
"  Madam:  —  The  inclosed  piece  of  silver,  by 
its  bowing,  humble  form  bespeaks  your  favour 
for  a  certain  young  man  in  town.  The  name 
(Real)  the  motto  (plus  ultra)  seem  to  plead 
its  suitableness  for  a  present  of  this  nature. 
Neither  need  you  accept  against  the  quantity; 
for  you  have  the  means  in  your  own  hands; 
and  by  your  generous  acceptance  you  may 
make  both  it  and  the  giver  great.  Madam,  I  am 
"  Your  affect,  friend, 

"  s.  s." 

When  the  Puritans  first  came  to  New  Eng- 
land they  ordered  (1646),  in  a  reaction  against 


u 


A  Puritan  Pepys  265 

the  Church  of  England,  that  only  magistrates 
or  one  appointed  by  the  authorities  should  join 
parties  in  holy  wedlock.  Under  this  law  Gov- 
ernor Eichard  Bellingham,  the  last  survivor  of 
the  patentees  named  in  the  charter,  performed 
a  marriage  service  for  himself  and  his  new 
bride :  —  "  His  last  wife  was  ready  to  be  con- 
tracted to  a  friend  of  his  who  lodged  in  his 
house  and  by  his  consent  had  proceeded  so  far 
with  her  when,  on  the  sudden,  the  governor 
treated  with  her  and  obtained  her  for  himself. 
He  was  fifty  and  the  lady  twenty  and  Belling- 
ham also  solemnized  the  marriage  himself." 
By  Sewall's  time,  however,  the  ministers,  as 
we  have  seen,  were  performing  the  marriage 
ceremony. 

One  rather  curious  courtship  custom  which 
obtained  at  this  time  was  that  of  addressing 
fervid  petitions  to  a  near  woman-relative  of 
the  girl  a  man  wished  for  his  wife,  praying 
that  this  sister  or  mother  would  intercede  with 
the  "  divine  mistress."  Drake  in  his  "  Rox- 
bury  "  gives  such  a  letter  sent  by  Paul  Dudley, 
son  of  the  royal  governor,  to  Mrs.  Davenport, 
sister  of  his  ' '  dearest  Lucy  ' ' : 

"Dear  Madam:  —  It  is  impossible  but  that 
you  must  take  notice  of  that  most  affectionate 


266  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Respect  and  Dutiful  Passion  I  Bear  to  your 
most  charming  and  amiable  Sister,  and  you  as 
easily  guess  at  my  Design  in  it  which  I  Blush  at 
the  thought  of.  But  the  just  honour  and  Re- 
gard I  have  and  ought  to  have  to  Colonel  Wain- 
wright,  [the  girl's  father  1  and  his  Lady  in  this 
affair,  forbids  my  pursuing  it  any  further  till  I 
have  mentioned  it  to  them ;  for  Which  Reason 
it  is  that  I  am  now  going  Hither  (though  with  a 
trembling  and  heavy  heart)  and  carry  with  me 
a  letter  from  the  Governor  to  your  Father  that 
he  would  allow  me  to  wait  upon  my  Sweetest 
fairest  Dearest  Lucy.  But  unless  my  Dearest 
Davenport  will  assist  and  make  An  Interest 
for  me  I  Can't  Hope  for  Success.  I  Confess 
I  have  no  grounds  to  ask  or  expect  such  a 
favour  from  you,  unless  it  Be  by  reminding  you 
of  the  many  obligations  you  have  already  laid 
me  Under,  and  this  is  an  argument  which  goes 
a  great  way  with  Noble  and  Generous  minds, 
and  I  am  sure  if  you  did  but  know  what  I  Un- 
dergoe  Both  Day  and  Night,  you  would  Pity 
me  at  least.  I  must  beg  of  you  therefore  if 
you  have  any  regard  to  my  Health  and  Happi- 
ness, I  might  say  to  my  life,  you  would  show 
your  compassion  and  friendship  to  me  in  this 
matter;*  and  Hereby  lay  such  an  obligation 
upon  me  as  shall  not,  cannot  ever  Be  forgotten. 


A  Puritan  Pepys  267 


I  Beg  a  thousand  pardons  of  my  Dame  for  this 
Freedom ;  and  Pray  her  not  to  expose  my  folly 
to  any  one,  tho'  if  she  thinks  it  proper,  or  that 
it  will  Doe  me  any  Service  She  may  Read  (to 
the  mark  *  above)  to  my  Divine  Mistress;  I 
know  you  have  smiled  all  along  and  By  this 
time  are  weary  of  my  Scrawle.  I'll  have  done 
therefore,  and  when  I  have  asked  the  favour  of 
you  to  present,  as  on  my  knees,  my  most  Sin- 
cere, passionate,  Dutifull  and  Constant  Soul  to 
My  Charming  Nymph,  With  whom  I  hope  to 
find  it  upon  my  Return,  of  which  I  shall  be  most 
Impatient.  Dear  Madam,  I  once  more  beg  par- 
don of  you  and  pray  you  to  think  me  in  Earnest 
in  what  I  write  for  every  Word  of  it  Comes 
from  the  Bottom  of  My  Soul,  and  I  hope  Be- 
fore I  have  done  to  Convince  My  Dearest  Lucy 
of  the  truth  of  it  tho'  as  yet  She  Believes  noth- 
ing that  I  say  to  her.  Madam,  I  am,  with  all 
affection  and  Respect,  Your  most  obliged  tho' 
now  Distressful  Humble  Servant, 

"  Paul  Dudley." 

"  You  may  show  all  this  letter  if  you  think 
fit,  Mrs.  Davenport." 

He  married  Lucy  in  1703  and  there  are  occa- 
sional references,  in  Sewall's  Diary,  to  the 
fortunes  of  the  couple. 


268  St.  Botolph's  Town 

This  son  of  Governor  Dudley  it  was,  by  the 
bye,  who  entered  Harvard  at  the  tender  age  of 
eleven  and  about  whom  his  father  thus  wrote 
the  president:  "April  26,  1686.  I  have 
humbly  to  offer  you  a  little  sober  well-disposed 
son,  who,  though  very  young,  if  he  may  have 
the  favour  of  admittance  I  hope  his  learning 
may  be  tolerable;  and  for  him  I  will  promise 
that,  by  your  and  my  care,  his  own  Industry 
and  the  blessing  of  God,  his  mother,  the  uni- 
versity, shall  not  be  ashamed  to  allow  him  the 
place  of  a  son  at  seven  years  end.  Appoint  a 
time  when  he  may  be  examined." 

Sewall's  children  all  made  good  matches 
(except  Hannah,  who  was  an  invalid  and  never 
married),  the  oldest  son  winning  as  a  wife  the 
daughter  of  Governor  Dudley.  This  alliance 
made  it  very  difficult  for  Sewall  to  be  as  sym- 
pathetic as  he  must  otherwise  have  been  when 
the  Mathers,  with  whom  he  was  very  intimate, 
solicited  his  support  in  their  memorable  con- 
troversy with  that  official. 

After  the  weddings  of  the  poorer  classes 
there  had  been  wont  to  be  dancing  at  a  nearby 
ordinary  or  tavern,  but  the  court  early  took 
this  abuse  vigorously  in  hand  and  ordered 
(May,  1651)  that  "  whereas  it  is  observed  that 
there  are  many  abuses  and  disorders  by  dan- 


A  Puritan  Pepys  269 

cing  in  ordinaries  whether  mixed  or  unmixed, 
upon  marriage  of  some  persons,  this  Court 
doth  order  that  henceforward  there  shall  be 
no  dancing  upon  such  occasion,  or  at  any  other 
times  in  ordinaries,  upon  the  pain  of  five  shil- 
ling for  every  person  that  shall  so  dance  in 
ordinaries."  Sewall  especially  hated  dancing 
and  writes  it  down  with  glee  in  his  Diary  when 
one  Stepney,  who  had  come  over  to  teach  this 
accomplishment,  had  to  run  away  because  of 
debt. 

In  his  relations  to  Indians,  negroes  and  the 
witchcraft  delusion  Sewall  showed  himself  con- 
siderably in  advance  of  his  time,  however. 
Eeference  has  already  been  made  to  his  brave 
confession  of  error  in  the  acceptance  of  ' '  spec- 
tral evidence,"  so  we  can  here  confine  our  at- 
tention to  his  attitude  towards  the  two  other 
persecuted  peoples.  After  King  Philip's  War, 
which  reached  its  crisis  in  May,  1676,  the  cause 
of  the  Indians  went  down  apace  and  it  was 
ordered  "  that  a  guard  be  set  against  the  en- 
trance of  the  town  of  Boston  (on  the  Neck) 
and  that  no  Indian  be  suffered  to  enter  upon 
any  pretext,  and  without  a  guard  and  two  mus- 
keteers and  not  to  lodge  in  town."  Indians 
even  approaching  by  land  or  water  were  liable 
to  arrest.     But  a  few  men,   and   Sewall  was 


270  St.  Botolph's  Town 

among  them,  still  persisted  in  their  labours 
for  these  people.  Cotton  Mather  sets  down  the 
fact  that  Judge  Sewall  built  a  meeting-house 
at  his  own  charge  for  one  of  the  Indian  con- 
gregations and  "  gave  those  Indians  cause  to 
pray  for  him  because  '  he  loveth  our  nation 
for  he  hath  built  us  a  synagogue.'  "  This 
meeting-house  was  in  Sandwich,  Barnstable 
County,  Cape  Cod.  Already  Sewall  had  writ- 
ten as  to  ways  of  dealing  with  the  race :  ' '  The 
best  thing  we  can  do  for  our  Indians  is  to 
Anglicize  them  in  all  agreeable  instances;  in 
that  of  language  as  well  as  others.  They  can 
scarce  retain  their  language  without  a  tincture 
of  other  savage  inclinations.  ...  I  should 
think  it  requisite  that  convenient  tracts  of  land 
should  be  set  out  to  them;  and  that  by  plain 
and  natural  boundaries  as  much  as  may  be ;  as 
lakes,  rivers,  mountains,  rocks;  upon  which 
for  any  man  to  encroach  should  be  accounted 
a  crime.  Except  this  be  done,  I  fear  their  own 
jealousies  and  the  French  Friars  will  per- 
suade them,  that  the  English  as  they  increase 
and  think  they  want  more  room  will  never 
leave  till  they  have  crowded  them  quite  out 
of  all  their  lands.  And  it  will  be  a  vain  attempt 
for  us  to  offer  heaven  to  them,  if  they  take  up 


A  Puritan  Pepys  271 

prejudices  against  us  as  if  we  did  grudge  them 
a  living  upon  their  own  earth." 

To  the  negro  also  Sewall  was  a  constant 
friend.  He  wrote  a  remarkable  anti-slavery 
tract  "  On  the  Selling  of  Joseph,"  and  he 
ranks  first  among  those  who  strove  to  give  the 
black  man  a  chance  at  decent  and  respectable 
married  life.  The  Diary  of  June  22,  1716, 
records  "  I  essayed  to  prevent  Indians  and 
negroes  being  rated  with  horses  and  hogs  but 
could  not  prevail."  As  a  justice  he  gave  some 
highly  important  decisions  in  cases  where  ne- 
groes had  been  wronged,  one  of  them  setting 
forth  in  truly  stirring  language  that  "  the 
poorest  boys  and  girls  within  this  province, 
such  as  are  of  the  lowest  condition,  whether 
they  be  English  or  Indians  or  Ethiopians,  they 
have  the  same  right  to  religion  and  life  that 
the  richest  heirs  have.  And  they  who  go  about 
to  deprive  them  of  this  right,  they  attempt  the 
bombarding  of  Heaven;  and  the  shells  they 
throw  shall  fall  down  upon  their  own  heads." 

Sewall  experienced,  of  course,  that  very 
thrilling  thing,  the  birth  of  a  new  century. 
The  Diary  of  January  2,  1701,  records  that 
"  just  about  break  of  day  Jacob  Amsden  and 
3  other  trumpeters  gave  a  blast  with  the  trum- 


272  St.  Botolph's  Town 

pets  on  the  Common  near  Mr.  Alford's.  Then 
went  to  the  Green  Chamber  and  sounded  there 
till  about  sunrise.  Bell  man  said  these  verses 
a  little  before  break-a  day  which  I  printed  and 
gave  them.  The  trumpeters  cost  me  five  pieces 
of  8."  These  verses  were  from  Sewall 's  own 
pen ;  they  were  fittingly  reread  on  Beacon  Hill 
by  the  Eeverend  Edward  Everett  Hale  at  mid- 
night on  the  eve  of  our  present  century's  dawn. 
The  first  two  are: 

"  Once  more  !  Our  God  vouchsafe  to  shine : 
Tame  thou  the  rigor  of  our  clime. 
Make  haste  with  thy  impartial  light 
And  terminate  this  long  dark  night. 

"  Let  the  transplanted  English  vine 
Spread  further  still ;  still  call  it  thine; 
Prune  it  with  skill :  for  yield  it  can 
More  fruit  to  thee  the  husbandman." 

Nothing  about  the  Diary  is  more  significant 
than  some  of  its  omissions.  When  "  news  is 
brought  to  us  "  (September  17,  1714)  of  Queen 
Anne's  death  the  only  comment  Sewall  makes 
upon  the  sad  countenance  of  him  who  bore  the 
tidings  is,  "I  was  afraid  Boston  had  burnt 
again."  Anne  was  a  High  Churchwoman  and 
had  given  aid  and  succour  to  the  Church  of 
England  to  which  Sewall  had  refused  to  sell 


A  Puritan  Pepys  273 

land  for  a  parish  home.  Though  Sewall  was 
now  sixty-two,  he  was  on  hand  bright  and 
early,  we  may  be  sure,  for  that  dinner  held  at 
the  Green  Dragon  tavern  to  proclaim  George  I 
king  of  England  and  "  Supreme  Lord  of  the 
Massachusetts." 

Judge  SewalPs  wife  Hannah  died  October 
19,  1717.  He  mourned  her  deeply,  but  briefly. 
It  was  expected  with  the  rigour  of  a  law  in  the 
Puritan  land  that  widows  and  widowers  should 
remarry.  They  all  did  it,  and  not  to  do  it  was 
a  social  offence.  Apparently  they  all  helped 
each  other  to  do  it,  and  for  a  man  in  Judge 
Sewall 's  social  station  there  was  no  chance  of 
escape,  even  though  he  was  sixty-five.  But  he 
appears  to  have  bent  his  neck  cheerfully 
enough  to  the  matrimonial  yoke,  for  we  find 
the  Diary  recording: 

11  Feby.  6,  1718.  This  morning  wandering  in 
my  mind  whether  to  live  a  single  or  married 
life,  I  had  a  sweet  and  very  affectionate  medi- 
tation concerning  the  Lord  Jesus.  Nothing 
was  to  be  objected  against  his  person,  parent- 
age, relations,  estate,  house,  home.  Why  did 
I  not  presently  close  with  him.  And  I  cried 
mightily  to  God  that  he  would  help  me  so  to 
do." 

"  Feby.   10.     I  received  a  letter  from  Mr. 


274  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Winthrop  having  one  enclosed  to  his  mother 
which  I  carry  to  her.  She  tells  me  Mr.  Eyre 
[Mrs.  Winthrop's  first  husband]  married  her 
May  20,  1680.  Lived  together  about  twenty 
years. ' ' 

"  March  10.  In  Madame  Usher's  absence 
Madam  Henchman  took  occasion  highly  to  com- 
mend Madame  Winthrop,  the  Major-General's 
widow  [as  a  wife]  March  14.  Deacon  Marion 
comes  to  me,  sits  with  me  a  great  while  in  the 
evening;  after  a  great  deal  of  discourse  about 
his  courtship  —  he  told  me  all  the  Olivers  said 
they  wished  I  would  court  their  aunt  (Madam 
Winthrop).  I  said  'twas  not  five  months  since 
I  buried  my  dear  wife.  Said  little,  but  said 
before  'twas  hard  to  know  whether  best  to 
marry  again  or  no;  whom  to  marry.  Dr. 
Mather  (Increase)  sends  me  his  Marah  in  a 
letter  in  which  is  this  expression,  '  But  your 
honor  will  allow  me  now  at  length  to  offer  you 
my  opinion  that  all  the  regards  are  not  yet 
paid  which  you  owe  unto  the  "Widow,  and  which 
are  expected  from  you.'  " 

This  Marah  was  probably  one  of  the  elder 
Mather's  books,  with  the  title,  "  An  Essay  to 
do  Good  unto  the  Widow,"  and  the  grave  bad- 
inage here  of  the  Puritan  divine  at  the  expense 
of  the  Puritan  Judge  is  characteristic. 


A  Puritan  Pepys  275 

"  March  19.  Mr.  Leverett,  when  he  and  I 
are  alone,  told  me  his  wife  and  he  had  laid  out 
Madam  Brown  for  me  and  yet  took  occasion 
to  say  that  Madam  Winthrop  had  done  very 
generously  by  the  Major  General's  family  in 
giving  up  her  dower.  I  said  if  Madam  Brown 
should  leave  her  fair  accommodations  at  Salem, 
she  might  be  apt  to  repent  it." 

But  soon,  either  because  fate  was  unpropi- 
tious,  or  Sewall's  discretion  had  the  upper 
hand,  he  turned  for  comfort  to  the  Widow  Den- 
nison,  whose  husband  had  died  shortly  before 
— "  an  autumnal  matron,"  as  Hawthorne 
would  phrase  it,  but  withal  a  business  woman 
not  wasting  property  on  sentiment.  Judge 
Sewall  had  written  the  late  Dennison's  will  and 
attended  his  funeral,  for  we  read : 

'"  March  19.  I  write  Mr.  William  Dennison's 
will,  being  desired  by  a  messenger  from  Rox- 
bury  with  minutes." 

On  March  26,  Sewall,  with  other  Puritan 
notables,  attended  Mr.  Dennison's  funeral  at 
Roxbury,  where  his  pastor,  Mr.  Walter,  said: 
"  He  was  a  man  of  truth,  and  of  trust,  a  man 
of  prayer,  integrity  and  piety." 

11  Gov.  Dudley  and  I  went  next  the  mourn- 
ers," the  Judge  records.  "  Went  back  to  the 
house  in  a  coach.    At  coming  away  I  prayed 


276  St.  Botolph's  Town 

God  to  keep  house  with  the  widow."  "  Mr. 
Danforth  gives  the  widow  Dennison  a  high 
commendation  for  her  piety,  prudence,  dili- 
gence, humility."  "  April  7.  I  prove  Mr. 
Dennison 's  will.  Her  brother,  Edmund  Wells, 
brought  the  widow  to  town  and  gave  me  notice 
before  hand.  I  gave  her  10s.  to  give  her  sister 
Weld  for  her  Indian  Bible.  Mr.  Dorr  took 
occasion  in  her  absence  to  say  she  was  one  of 
the  most  dutiful  wives  in  the  world.  Her 
cousin,  the  widow  Hayden,  accidentally  came 
in  with  her.  April  8.  Mr.  Boydell,  when  I 
was  at  his  office  and  signed  the  papers,  smiling 
said  Mr.  Dennison 's  will  looked  as  if  it  was 
written  by  me.  I  told  him,  '  Yes,  but  there  was 
not  a  tittle  of  it  mine,  but  the  form.'  " 

"  June  3d.  Go  to  Boxbury,  talk  with  Mr. 
Walter  about  Mrs.  Dennison.  He  advises  me 
not  to  see  her  then,  lest  should  surprise  her 
undressed  [not  dressed  for  callers].  Told  him 
I  came  on  purpose;  yet  finally  submitted  to 
his  advice;  he  spake  of  her  coming  to  town 
on  Thursday.  June  5.  Nobody  came  —  I  writ 
to  Mr.  Walter.  June  9.  Note,  Mrs.  D.  came  in 
the  morning  about  nine  o'clock,  I  took  her  up 
into  my  chamber  and  discoursed  thoroughly 
with  her.  She  desired  me  to  procure  another 
and  better   nurse.      [Sewall   had   represented 


A  Puritan  Pepys  277 

that  he  needed  some  one  to  look  after  him  in 
his  old  age.} 

"  I  gave  her  the  last  two  News  Letters, — 
told  her  I  intended  to  visit  her  at  her  own 
house  next  lecture  day.  She  said  'twould  be 
talked  of.  I  answered  in  such  cases  persons 
must  run  the  gauntlet.  Gave  her  Mr.  Whi- 
ting's oration,  for  Abijah  Walter  who  brought 
her  on  horseback  to  town.  I  think  little  or  no 
notice  was  taken  of  it." 

"  June  17.  Went  to  Roxbury  Lecture.  Vis- 
ited Govr.  Dudley,  Mrs.  Dennison;  gave  her 
Dr.  Mather's  sermons  very  well  bound;  told 
her  we  were  in  it  invited  to  a  wedding.  She 
gave  me  very  good  curds.  July  2.  I  gave  Mrs. 
Dennison  her  oath  to  the  inventory  [of  her  hus- 
band's goods.]  At  night  when  all  were  gone  to 
bed,  Cousin  Moody  went  with  me  into  the  new 
hall,  read  the  history  of  Rebecca's  Courtship 
and  prayed  with  me  respecting  my  widowed 
condition.  July  16.  Went  and  visited  Mrs. 
Dennison.  Gave  her  King  George's  effiges  in 
copper;  and  an  English  crown  of  King  Charles 
II.,  1677.  Eat  curds  with  her ;  I  craved  a  bless- 
ing and  returned  thanks ;  came  home  after  it. ' ' 

"  July  25.  I  go  in  a  hackney  coach  to  Rox- 
bury. Call  at  Mr.  Walter 's  who  is  not  at  home ; 
nor  Gov.  Dudley  nor  his  lady.    Visit  Mrs.  Den- 


278  St.  Botolph's  Town 

nison;  she  invites  me  to  eat.  I  give  her  two 
cases  with  a  knife  and  fork  in  each ;  one,  turtle 
shell  tackling;  the  other  long  with  ivory  han- 
dles, squared,  cost  4s.  6d. ;  pound  of  raisins 
with  proportional  almonds.  Visit  her  brother 
and  sister  Weld." 

"  Aug.  6.  Visited  Mrs.  Dennison,  carried 
her  sister  Weld,  the  widow  and  Mrs.  Weld  to 
her  brother,  where  we  were  courteously  enter- 
tained. Brought  Mr.  Edmund  Weld's  wife 
home  with  me  in  the  coach;  she  is  in  much 
darkness  [concerning  the  outcome  of  his  suit]. 
Gave  Mrs.  Dennison  a  psalm  book  neatly 
bound  in  England  with  Turkey  leather.  27th. 
I  ride  and  visit  Mrs.  Dennison,  leave  my  horse 
at  the  Grey  Hound.  She  mentions  her  dis- 
couragements by  reason  of  discourses  she 
heard;  I  prayed  God  to  direct  her  and  me." 

In  fact,  Sewall  visits  this  lady  upon  almost 
every  opportunity;  but  as  his  duty  as  circuit 
judge  took  him  away,  Mrs.  Dennison  disap- 
pears from  the  Diary  while  he  is  on  his  travels. 
The  next  significant  entry  is  Oct.  15 :  — 

"  Visit  Mrs.  Dennison  on  horseback;  pre- 
sent her  with  a  pair  of  shoe  buckles  cost  5s. 
3d."  "  Nov.  1.  My  son  from  Brookline  being 
here,  I  took  his  horse  and  visited  Mrs.  Denni- 
son.   I  told  her  'twas  time  to  finish  our  busi- 


A  Puritan  Pepys  279 

ness.  Asked  her  what  I  should  allow  her.  She 
not  speaking,  I  told  her  I  was  willing  to  give 
her  £250  pr.  annum  during  her  life,  if  it  should 
please  God  to  take  me  out  of  the  world  before 
her.  She  answered  she  had  better  keep  as  she 
was  than  to  give  a  certainty  for  an  uncertainty. 
She  should  pay  dear  for  dwelling  at  Boston.  I 
desired  her  to  make  proposals  but  she  made 
none.  I  had  thought  of  publishment  next 
Thursday.  But  now  I  seemed  to  be  far  from 
it.  May  God  who  has  the  pity  of  a  father, 
direct  and  help  me !  ' ' 

Her  late  husband,  as  Sewall  well  knew,  had 
left  Mrs.  Dennison  a  life  interest  in  all  his 
estates.  The  trouble  in  this  case  seems  to  have 
been  that  the  lady  declined  to  alienate  any  of 
her  interests  by  marriage.  In  fact,  all  through 
his  later  courtships  Sewall  shines  more  as  a 
sharp  business  man  than  a  lover  with  tact  or 
sentiment. 

"  Novr.  28,  1718.  I  went  this  day  in  the 
coach  [to  Mrs.  Dennison 's],  had  a  fire  made 
in  the  chamber  where  I  stayed  with  her  before. 
I  enquired  how  she  had  done  these  three  or 
four  weeks.  Afterwards,  I  told  her  our  con- 
versation had  been  such  when  I  was  with  her 
last  that  it  seemed  to  be  a  direction  in  Prov- 
idence not  to  proceed  any  further;    she  said 


280  St.  Botolph's  Town 

it  must  be  what  I  pleased,  or  to  that  purpose.' ' 

Then  there  apparently  proceeded  one  of  those 
wrangles  not  peculiar  to  Puritan  courtships, 
but  in  this  case  carried  on  with  due  Puritan 
decorum,  which,  as  usual  with  persons  in  such 
relations,  came  to  nothing,  she  holding  her 
own.    But  the  ending  entry  is  delicious : 

1 '  She  asked  me  if  I  would  drink ;  I  told  her 
Yes.  She  gave  me  cider,  apples,  and  a  glass 
of  wine;  gathered  together  the  little  things  I 
had  given  her  and  offered  them  to  me;  but  I 
would  take  none  of  them.  Told  her  I  wished 
her  well,  should  be  glad  to  hear  of  her  welfare. 
She  seemed  to  say  she  would  not  take  in  hand 
a  thing  of  this  nature.  Thanked  me  for  what 
I  had  given  her  and  desired  my  prayers.  I 
gave  Abijah  Weld  an  Angel.  Got  home  about 
9  at  night.  My  bowels  yearn  towards  Mrs. 
Dennison;  but  I  think  God  directs  me  in  his 
Providence  to  desist." 

We  catch  one  more  glimpse  of  the  lady, 
Lord's  Day,  Nov.  30,  when,  in  the  evening, 
while  Sewall  was  at  family  prayers :  — 

' '  She  came  in,  preceded  by  her  cousin  Weld, 
saying  she  wished  to  speak  to  me  in  private. 
I  was  very  much  startled  that  she  should  come 
so  far  afoot  in  that  exceeding  cold  season. 
She  asked  pardon  if  she  had   affronted  me. 


A  Puritan  Pepys  281 

Seemed  inclined  the  match  should  not  break 
off,  since  I  had  kept  her  company  so  long.  I 
fetched  a  tankard  of  cider  and  drank  to  her. 
She  desired  that  nobody  might  know  of  her 
being  here.  I  told  her  they  should  not.  She 
went  away  in  the  bitter  cold,  no  moon  being 
up,  to  my  great  pain.  I  saluted  her  at  part- 
ing." 

The  last  glimpse  of  Mrs.  Dennison  in  the 
Diary  is  this:  — 

"  Dec.  22.  Mrs.  Dorothy  Dennison  brings 
an  additional  inventory.  I  gave  her  her  oath; 
asked  her  brother  Brewer  and  her  to  dine  with 
me;  she  said  she  needed  not  to  eat;  caused 
her  to  sit  by  the  fire  and  went  with  her  to  the 
door  at  her  going  away.  She  said  nothing  to 
me  nor  her  brother  Brewer." 

Mrs.  Dennison  remarried  in  1720,  Sewall 
having  already  taken  to  wife  Mrs.  Tilly  whom 
he  had  formerly  considered,  and  then  set  aside 
because  they  could  not  agree  upon  the  terms 
of  settlement.  This  lady  died  when  they  had 
been  married  but  a  short  time  and  then  the 
twice-widowed  judge  began  —  after  an  inter- 
val of  only  four  months,  this  time  —  to  pay 
attentions  to  Mrs.  Winthrop,  a  highly  eligible 
widow.  The  ardent  fashion  in  which  this  lady 
was  pursued  by  the  venerable  justice  I  have 


282  St.  Botolph's  Town 

elsewhere  *  described.  But  the  courtship  came 
to  nothing,  because  Sewall  would  not  agree  to 
set  up  a  coach  nor  wear  a  periwig.  He  soon 
found  another  woman  less  exacting,  however, 
and  her  he  blithely  took  to  be  his  third  wife, 
thought  he  was  now  over  seventy.  She  sur- 
vived him,  for  he  died  Jan.  1,  1730.  He  sleeps 
in  death  in  the  Old  Granary  Burying  Ground 
almost  on  the  very  spot  where  he  long  ago  had 
his  home. 

l"  Romance  of  Old  New  England  Churches." 


XIII 

IN   THE   REIGN    OF   THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS 

The  year  in  which  Sewall  died  marked  the 
appointment  of  Jonathan  Belcher  as  governor 
of  Massachusetts.  He  was  the  sixth  governor 
to  be  sent  out  by  the  crown  and  the  third  who 
was  a  native  of  the  province.  But  he  suc- 
ceeded in  his  office  no  better  than  the  gentle- 
men who  had  preceded  him,  the  wrangling 
which  had  become  a  regular  feature  of  legisla- 
tive life  here  marring  his  administration  as  it 
had  done  those  of  his  predecessors.  Belcher 
was  the  son  of  a  prosperous  Boston  merchant 
and  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College.  He  was 
polished  and  sociable  and  had  had  the  benefit  of 
extensive  travel.  But  he  found  himself  in  an 
impossible  situation  and  the  only  thing  for  him 
to  do  was  to  make  as  few  enemies  as  possible 
and  wait  for  death  or  the  king  to  remove  him. 
People  who  for  two  generations  had  been  prac- 
tically  independent    were   not    going   to    take 

283 


284  St.  Botolph's  Town 

kindly  to  any  appointee  of  a  throne  they  were 
determined  to  find  tyrannical. 

Of  course  the  opposition  was  by  no  means 
unanimous.  Quite  a  few  persons  there  were  in 
Boston  and  its  nearby  towns  to  whom  the  old 
regime,  with  its  subserviency  to  men  like  the 
Mathers,  had  been  noxious  in  the  extreme,  and 
they  naturally  welcomed  the  change.  But  to 
most  of  those  who  in  lineage,  sentiment,  and 
habit,  represented  the  first  planters  the  foist- 
ing upon  New  England  of  a  royal  governor, 
bound  in  loyalty  to  a  far-off  king,  was  an  af- 
front to  be  neither  forgiven  nor  condoned. 
Though  the  holder  of  this  office  had  been  a  man 
of  superhuman  breadth  and  of  extraordinary 
generosity  he  would  not  have  been  acceptable 
to  this  portion  of  the  inhabitants.  William 
Phips  had  been  indigenous  to  a  degree  found 
in  no  man  elected  by  the  people.  But  he  suited 
neither  the  Mathers,  who  nominated  him,  nor 
the  common  people  who  hated  the  Mathers. 
Even  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  the  "  real  lord  " 
who  succeeded  Phips,  got  on  better  with  the 
captious  people  who  moulded  public  opinion  in 
Boston  than  did  this  Maine  carpenter. 

For  a  time,  indeed,  it  looked  as  if  Bellomont 
were  going  to  get  on  very  well  indeed.  A  vig- 
orous man  of  sixty-three,  fine  looking,   with 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        285 

elegant  manners  and  courtly  ways,  lie  had 
little  difficulty,  at  first,  in  making  friends  with 
even  the  least  friendly  of  the  Bostonians. 
Churchman  though  he  was,  he  was  not  averse 
to  attendance  at  the  Thursday  lecture  and  this, 
of  course,  made  upon  the  stiff-necked  Puritans 
just  the  impression  he  had  calculated  that  it 
would. 

The  Assembly  hired  of  Peter  Sergeant  for 
him  the  Province  House  afterwards  renowned 
as  the  official  home  of  the  governors,  and  here 
he  entertained  handsomely.  By  a  curious  co- 
incidence his  lady  thus  succeeded  as  mistress 
of  the  handsome  mansion  Lady  Phips,  whom 
Peter  Sergeant  had  married  for  his  third  wife. 
The  builder,  owner  and  first  occupant  of  what 
is  perhaps  the  most  interesting  house  in  colo- 
nial history  was  a  rich  London  merchant  who 
came  to  reside  here  in  1667  and  died  here  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1714.  Sergeant  had  held  many  offices 
under  the  old  charter  government,  was  one  of 
the  witchcraft  judges  and,  when  Andros  had 
been  deposed,  played  an  important  part  in 
that  proceeding.  That  he  was  a  very  rich  man 
one  must  conclude  from  the  extreme  elegance 
of  the  homestead  which  be  erected,  nearly  op- 
posite the  Old  South  Church,  on  a  lot  three 
hundred  feet  deep  with  a  frontage  of  nearly 


286  St.  Botolph's  Town 

a  hundred  feet  on  what  was  then  called  High 
street  but  which  we  now  know  as  Washington 
street. 

The  house  was  square  and  of  brick.  It  had 
three  stories,  with  a  gambrel  roof  and  lofty 
cupola,  the  last-named  adornment  surmounted 
with  the  gilt-bronzed  figure  of  an  Indian  with 
a  drawn  bow  and  arrow.  Over  the  portico  of 
the  main  entrance  was  an  elaborate  iron  balus- 
trade bearing  the  initials  of  the  owner  and  the 
date  "  16  P.  S.  79."  Large  trees  graced  the 
court-yard,  which  was  surrounded  by  an  ele- 
gant fence  set  off  by  ornamented  posts.  A 
paved  driveway  led  up  to  the  massive  steps  of 
the  palatial  doorway.  Two  small  out-build- 
ings, which,  in  the  official  days  served  as  por- 
ters' lodges,  signified  to  passers-by  that  this 
house  was  indeed  the  dwelling-place  of  one  who 
represented  the  majesty  of  England. 

Hawthorne  in  his  ' '  Legends  of  the  Province 
House  "  has  repeopled  for  us  this  impressive 
old  mansion  and,  at  the  risk  of  anticipating 
somewhat  the  arrival  of  governors  not  yet  on 
the  scene,  I  shall  quote  his  description  while 
suppressing,  as  far  as  possible,  his  allusions  to 
the  deplorable  condition  of  the  house  at  the 
time  he  himself  visited  it :  "A  wide  door  with 
double  leaves  led  into  the  hall  or  entry  on  the 


THE    PROVINCE    HOUSE 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors       287 

right  of  which  was  a  spacious  room,  the  apart- 
ment, I  presume,  in  which  the  ancient  gover- 
nors held  their  levees  with  vice-regal  pomp, 
surrounded  by  the  military  men,  the  Counsel- 
lors, the  judges,  and  other  officers  of  the 
Crown,  while  all  the  loyalty  of  the  Province 
thronged  to  do  them  honour.  .  .  .  The  most 
venerable  ornamental  object  is  a  chimney- 
piece,  set  round  with  Dutch  tiles  of  blue-figured 
china,  representing  scenes  from  Scripture; 
and,  for  aught  I  know,  the  lady  of  Pownall  or 
Bernard  may  have  sat  beside  this  fireplace  and 
told  her  children  the  story  of  each  blue  tile.  .  . 
"  The  great  staircase,  however,  may  be 
termed  without  much  hyperbole,  a  feature  of 
grandeur  and  magnificence.  It  winds  through 
the  midst  of  the  house  by  flights  of  broad  steps, 
each  flight  terminating  in  a  square  landing- 
place,  whence  the  ascent  is  continued  towards 
the  cupola.  A  carved  balustrade  .  .  .  borders 
the  staircase  with  its  quaintly  twisting  and 
intertwining  pillars,  from  top  to  bottom.  Up 
these  stairs  the  military  boots,  or  perchance 
the  gouty  shoes  of  many  a  Governor  have 
trodden,  as  the  wearers  mounted  to  the  cupola, 
which  afforded  them  so  wide  a  view  over  the 
metropolis  and  the  surrounding  country.  The 
cupola  is  an  octagon  with  several  windows,  and 


288  St.  Botolph's  Town 

a  door  opening  upon  the  roof.  .  .  .  Descending 
...  I  paused  in  the  garret  to  observe  the  pon- 
derous white  oak  framework,  so  much  more 
massive  than  the  frames  of  modern  houses, 
and  thereby  resembling  an  antique  skeleton." 
The  cheerful  task  of  recalling  the  courtly 
functions  of  the  Province  House  in  its  bright 
days  has  been  ably  discharged  by  Edwin  L. 
Bynner  who,  writing  in  the  Memorial  History 
of  Boston  on  the  ' '  Topography  of  the  Provin- 
cial Period  "  invokes  "  this  old-time  scene  of 
stately  ceremonial,  official  pomp  or  social  gay- 
ety,  of  many  a  dinner  rout  or  ball.  Here  dames 
magnificent  in  damask  or  brocade,  towering 
head-dress  and  hoop  petticoat  —  here  cavaliers 
in  rival  finery  of  velvet  or  satin,  with  gorgeous 
waistcoats  of  solid  gold  brocade,  with  wigs  of 
every  shape,  —  the  tie,  the  full-bottomed,  the 
ramillies,  the  albermarle,  —  with  glittering 
swords  dangling  about  their  silken  hose  — 
where,  in  fine,  the  wise,  the  witty,  gay  and 
learned,  the  leaders  in  authority,  in  thought 
and  in  fashion,  the  flower  of  old  Provincial  life, 
trooped  in  full  tide  through  the  wainscoted 
and  tapestried  rooms,  and  up  the  grand  old 
winding  staircase  with  its  carved  balustrade 
and  its  square  landing-places,  to  do  honour  to 
the  hospitality  of  the  martial  Shute,  the  courtly 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        289 

Burnet,  the  gallant  Pownall,   or  the  haughty 
Bernard." 

At  the  time  of  Bellomont's  administration, 
however,  the  house  had  not  yet  become  identi- 
fied with  any  great  amount  of  official  grandeur. 
The  Boston  of  that  year  (1699)  impressed  one 
traveller,  indeed,  as  a  very  poor  sort  of  place. 
This  traveller's  name  was  Edward  Ward  and 
he  is  worth  some  attention  as  a  wit,  even 
though  we  may  need  to  discount  a  good  deal 
of  what  he  wrote  about  the  chief  town  of  New 
England:  "  The  Houses  in  some  parts  Joyn 
as  in  London,"  he  says,  "  the  Buildings,  like 
their  women,  being  neat  and  handsome;  their 
Streets,  like  the  Hearts  of  the  Male  Inhabit- 
ants are  paved  with  Pebble.  In  the  Chief  or 
High  street  there  are  stately  Edifices,  some  of 
which  have  cost  the  owners  two  or  three  thou- 
sand pounds  the  raising;  which,  I  think, 
plainly  proves  two  old  adages  true,  —  viz  that 
a  Fool  and  his  Money  is  soon  parted,  and  Set 
a  Beggar  on  Horseback  he'll  Bide  to  the  Devil, 
—  for  the  Fathers  of  these  men  were  Tinkers 
and  Peddlers.  To  the  Glory  of  Religion  and 
the  Credit  of  the  Town  there  are  four  Churches. 
.  .  .  Every  Stranger  is  invariably  forc'd  to 
take  this  Notice,  That  in  Boston  there  are  more 
religious  zealouts   than  honest  men.  .  .  .  The 


290  St.  Botolph's  Town 

inhabitants  seem  very  religious  showing  many 
outward  and  visible  signs  of  an  inward  and 
Spiritual  Grace  but  though  they  wear  in  their 
Faces  the  Innocence  of  Doves,  you  will  find 
them  in  their  Dealings  as  subtile  as  Serpents. 
Interest  is  Faith,  Money  their  God,  and  Large 
Possessions  the  only  Heaven  they  covet.  Elec- 
tion, Commencement  and  Training  days  are 
their  only  Holy-Days.  They  keep  no  saints' 
days  nor  will  they  allow  the  Apostles  to  be 
saints ;  yet  they  assume  that  sacred  dignity  to 
themselves,  and  say,  in  the  title-page  of  their 
Psalm-book,  '  Printed  for  the  edification  of  the 
Saints  in  Old  and  New  England.'  " 

A  witty  fellow  certainly,  this  taverner  and 
poet  whom  Pope  honoured  with  a  low  seat  in 
the  Dunciad  and  who  so  cleverly  hit  off  the 
peculiarities  of  our  Puritan  forbears  that  we 
have  to  quote  him  whether  we  will  or  no.  In 
connection  with  the  law  against  kissing  in  pub- 
lic he  tells  a  story  which  has  since  become 
classic  of  a  ship  captain  who,  returning  from 
a  long  voyage,  happened  to  meet  his  wife  in 
the  street  and,  of  course,  kissed  her.  For  this 
he  was  fined  ten  shillings.  "  What  a  happi- 
ness," comments  Ward,  "do  we  enjoy  in  old 
England,  "  that  can  not  only  kiss  our  own 
wives  but  other  men's  too  without  the  danger 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        291 

of  such  a  penalty."  Ward  regarded  our 
women  as  highly  kissable,  observing  that  they 
had  better  complexions  than  the  ladies  of  Lon- 
don. ' '  But  the  men,  —  they  are  generally 
meagre  and  have  got  the  hypocritical  knack, 
like  our  English  Jews,  of  screwing  their  faces 
into  such  puritanical  postures  that  you  would 
think  they  were  always  praying  to  themselves, 
or  running  melancholy  mad  about  some  mys- 
tery in  the  Revelations." 

One  of  the  chief  objects  that  the  king  had 
in  mind  in  appointing  Lord  Bellomont  gov- 
ernor was  the  suppression  of  piracy,  which  had 
long  been  an  appalling  scourge  on  the  whole 
American  coast.  The  new  incumbent  did  not 
disappoint  his  royal  master,  for  he  promptly 
arrested  and  caused  to  be  sent  to  England  for 
subsequent  hanging  the  notorious  Captain 
Kidd,  who,  from  pirate  hunting  with  Bellomont 
as  silent  partner,  himself  turned  pirate  and  had 
to  be  given  short  shrift.  While  Kidd  was  in 
jail  he  proposed  to  Bellomont  that  he  should 
be  taken  as  a  prisoner  to  Hispaniola  in  order 
that  he  might  bring  back  to  Massachusetts  the 
ship  of  the  Great  Mogul,  which  he  had  unlaw- 
fully captured,  and  in  the  huge  treasure  of 
which  Bellomont  and  his  companions  would 
own  four-fifths  if  the  prize  were  adjudged  a 


292  St.  Botolph's  Town 

lawful  one.  Bellomont  refused  this  offer,  for 
he  well  knew  that  the  Great  Mogul's  ship  ought 
not  to  have  been  attacked  inasmuch  as  that 
personage  was  on  friendly  terms  with  England. 
It  is  to  this  "  great  refusal  "  of  Bellomont 
that  we  owe  the  mystery  that  to  this  day  en- 
shrouds the  whereabouts  of  Captain  Kidd's 
treasure. 

Bellomont  died  in  New  York  —  whither  he 
had  gone  for  a  short  visit  —  March  5,  1701, 
after  a  sojourn  in  Boston  of  a  little  over  a 
year.  The  stern-faced  Stoughton  again  filled 
the  gap  as  the  head  of  the  government.  And 
then,  on  July  11,  1702,  there  arrived  in  Boston 
harbour  as  governor  that  Joseph  Dudley  who, 
eleven  years  before,  had  been  sent  out  of  the 
country  a  prisoner  in  the  "  crew  "  of  the  hated 
Andros.  Dudley  has  been  more  abused  than 
any  of  the  royal  governors.  Most  historians 
speak  of  him  as  "  the  degenerate  son  of  his 
father  "  but,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  they  mean 
by  this  only  that  he  honoured  the  king  instead 
of  the  theocracy  and  attended  King's  Chapel 
instead  of  the  Olcl  South  Church.  He  had  been 
born  in  Boxbury  July  23,  1647,  after  his  father 
hnd  attained  the  age  of  seventy,  and  was  duly 
educated  for  the  ministry.  But,  preferring 
civil  affairs  to  the  church,  he  held  various  of- 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        293 

fices  and  was  sent  to  England  in  1682,  one  of 
those  charged  with  the  task  of  saving  the  old 
charter.  He  soon  saw  that  this  could  not  be 
done  and  so  advised  the  surrender  of  that  doc- 
ument, —  counsel  which,  of  course,  caused  him 
to  be  called  a  traitor  to  his  trust.  But  it  served 
to  recommend  him  to  the  royal  eye  and  brought 
him  the  appointment  of  President  of  New  Eng- 
land. How  he  was  imprisoned,  how  he  at- 
tempted escape  and  how  he  was  finally  pun- 
ished (?)  in  England  we  have  already  seen. 
Dudley  was  in  truth  much  too  able  a  man  to 
be  ignored.  During  the  almost  ten  years  of  his 
exile  from  America,  he  not  only  served  as 
deputy  governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  but  he 
was  also  a  member  of  Parliament.  Most  inter- 
esting of  all  he  enjoyed  the  close  friendship 
of  Sir  Richard  Steele,  who  acknowledged  that 
he  "  owed  many  fine  thoughts  and  the  manner 
of  expressing  them  to  his  happy  acquaintance 
with  Colonel  Dudley;  and  that  he  had  one 
quality  which  he  never  knew  any  man  pos- 
sessed of  but  him,  which  was  that  he  could  talk 
him  down  into  tears  when  he  had  a  mind  to 
it,  by  the  command  he  had  of  fine  thoughts  and 
words  adapted  to  move  the  affections."  Even 
those  who  admired  Dudley  did  not  invariably 
trust  him,  however.     Sewall,   whose   son  had 


294  St.  Botolph's  Town 

married  the  governor's  daughter,  records  that 
"  the  Governor  often  says  that  if  anybody 
would  deal  plainly  with  him  he  would  kiss 
them.  But  I  (who  did  so)  received  many  a 
bite  and  many  a  hard  word  from  him."  Dud- 
ley, first  among  the  royal  governors,  began 
that  fight  for  a  regular  salary  which  lasted 
almost  as  long  as  did  the  office.  For  some  time 
he  refused  the  money  grants  which  were  voted 
to  him  but,  when  he  found  that  he  would  get 
nothing  else,  he  at  last  gave  way.  Yet  he  was 
so  unpopular  that  there  was  hardly  any  year 
when  he  received  more  than  six  hundred 
pounds.  When  Queen  Anne  died  he  knew  that 
his  power  must  come  to  an  end.  So  he  retired 
from  public  office  to  his  estate  at  West  Kox- 
bury,  where  he  died  in  1720,  having  bequeathed 
fifty  pounds  to  the  Eoxbury  Free  school  for 
the  support  of  a  Latin  master.  All  his  life  he 
had  been  a  conspicuous  friend  of  letters  and, 
in  distributing  commissions,  he  uniformly  gave 
the  preference  to  graduates  of  the  college  for 
which  he  had  done  so  much. 

To  the  year  of  Dudley's  death  belongs  the 
institution  of  what  is  perhaps  Boston's  most 
unique  educational  enterprise,  —  "a  Spinning 
School  for  the  instructions  of  the  children  of 
this   Town."     There  had  arrived  in  Boston, 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        295 

shortly  before  this,  quite  a  number  of  Scotch- 
Irish  persons  from  in  and  about  Londonderry, 
bringing  with  them  skill  in  spinning  and  a 
habit  of  consuming  the  then-little-known  po- 
tato. The  introduction  of  the  potato  had  no 
immediate  social  effect  but  the  coming  of  the 
linen  wheel,  a  domestic  implement  which  might 
be  manipulated  by  a  movement  of  the  foot,  was 
looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  great  importance. 
Accordingly,  a  large  building  was  erected  on 
Long- Acre  street  (that  part  of  Tremont  street 
between  Winter  and  School)  for  the  express 
purpose  of  encouraging  apprentices  to  the 
manufacture  of  linen.  Spinning-wheels  soon 
became  the  fad  of  the  day  and,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  school  "  females  of  the  town, 
rich  and  poor  appeared  on  the  Common  with 
their  wheels  and  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
dexterity  of  using  them.  A  larger  concourse 
of  people  was  perhaps  never  drawn  together 
on  any  occasion  before."  By  a  curious  kind 
of  irony  the  General  Court  appropriated  to  the 
use  of  this  spinning  school  the  tax  on  carriages 
and  other  articles  of  luxury. 

The  Common,  by  the  bye,  had  now  come  to 
be  the  cherished  possession  which  Bostonians 
of  to-day  still  esteem  it.  Purchased  by  Gov. 
Winthrop  and  others  of  William  Blackstone  in 


296  St.  Botolph's  Town 

1634  for  thirty  pounds,  a  law  was  enacted  as 
early  as  1640  for  its  protection  and  preserva- 
tion. Originally  it  extended  as  far  as  the  pres- 
ent Tremont  Building,  and  an  alms-house  and 
the  Granary  as  well  as  the  Granary  Burying 
Ground  (established  in  1660)  were  within  its 
confines.  It  is  certainly  greatly  to  be  regretted 
that  the  famous  Paddock  Elms,  set  out  on  the 
Common's  edge  in  1762  by  Major  Adino  Pad- 
dock, the  first  coachmaker  of  the  town,  whose 
home  was  opposite  the  Burying-Ground,  had 
to  be  removed  in  1873,  in  order  to  make  way 
for  traction  improvements! 

The  next  governor  after  Dudley  was  Colonel 
Samuel  Shute,  in  whose  behalf  friends  of  the 
Province,  then  in  London,  purchased  the  office 
from  the  king's  appointee  for  one  thousand 
pounds.  Shute  was  a  brother  of  the  after- 
wards Lord  Barrington  and  belonged  to  a  dis- 
senting family.  It  was,  of  course,  expected  by 
Ashhurst,  Belcher  and  Dummer —  when  they 
obtained  from  Colonel  Elisha  Burgess  the 
right  to  the  governorship  —  that  Shute  would 
give  them  their  money's  worth  and  help  them 
to  down  the  rising  Episcopal  party  in  Boston. 
But  their  incumbent  promptly  showed  that  he 
was  a  king's  man  by  voting  an  adjournment 
of  the  court  over  December  25,  1722.     "  The 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors       297 

Governor  mentioned  how  ill  it  would  appear 
to  have  votes  passed  on  that  day,"  records 
Sewall;  and  on  further  argument  Colonel 
Shute  "  said  he  was  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land." 

This  must  have  been  a  bitter  fact  for  our 
old  friend,  the  justice,  to  write  down  in  his 
Diary,  for  none  had  struggled  harder  than  he 
against  the  inevitable  advance  of  Episcopacy. 
Of  course  the  religion  of  England  must  surely, 
if  slowly,  make  its  way  forward  in  an  English 
province  governed  by  officials  sent  out  from 
England.  Sewall  was  too  sensible  a  man  not 
to  know  this.  But  he  would  not  raise  his  left 
little  finger  to  help  the  matter  on.  His  Diary 
abounds,  as  we  have  already  seen,  in  references 
to  the  difficulties  encountered  by  those  who 
were  trying  to  introduce  into  Boston  the  ways 
and  the  worship  of  the  old  country.  When  Lady 
Andros  died  he  had  none  of  his  usual  exclama- 
tions of  pity  for  the  sorrow  of  the  bereaved 
husband,  and  when  Andros  tried  to  buy  land 
for  a  church-home  Sewall  refused  to  sell  him 
any. 

But  the  governor  got  land  just  the  same,  for 
he  appropriated  a  corner  of  the  burial  ground 
for  his  church.  The  Reverend  Increase  Mather, 
speaking  of  the  matter  in  1688  said:    "  Thus 


298  St.  Botolph's  Town 

they  built  an  house  at  their  own  charge;  but 
can  the  Townsmen  of  Boston  tell  at  whose 
charge  the  land  was  purchased  1  ' '  This  refers, 
however,  only  to  the  land  occupied  by  the  orig- 
inal church.  The  selectmen  of  Boston  docilely 
granted,  in  1747,  the  additional  parcels  needed 
for  the  enlargement  of  the  building  then  on  the 
spot. 

Sufficiently  unpretentious,  certainly,  was  the 
exterior  of  the  early  home  of  prayer-book  serv- 
ice in  Boston.  It  was  of  wood  crowned  by 
a  steeple,  at  the  top  of  which  soared  a  huge 
"  cockerel."  In  the  one  cut  which  has  come 
down  to  us  of  the  building,  the  height  of  this 
scriptural  bird  rivals  that  of  the  nearby  Bea- 
con. This,  however,  is  very  likely  attributable 
to  an  error  in  perspective  on  the  part  of  the 
"  artist."  Greenwood  tells  us  that  "  a  large 
and  quite  observable  crown  "  might  be  dis- 
cerned just  under  this  ambitious  bird.  The 
interior  of  the  church  was  much  more  attract- 
ive to  the  eye  than  was  the  case  in  the  other 
Boston  meeting-houses.  Though  there  were  no 
pews  for  several  years,  this  defect  had  been 
remedied,  by  1694,  as  the  result  of  a  purse  of 
fifty-six  pounds  collected  from  the  officers  of 
Sir  Francis  Wheeler's  fleet,  which  had  been  in 
the  harbour  shortly  before.    Further  to  offset 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        299 

its  humble  exterior  the  chapel  had  a  "  cushion 
and  Cloth  for  the  Pulpit,  two  Cushions  for  the 
Reading  Desks,  a  carpet  for  the  Allter  all  of 
Crimson  Damask,  with  silk  fringe,  one  Large 
Bible,  two  Large  Common  Prayer  Books, 
twelve  Lesser  Common  Prayer  Books,  Linnin 
for  the  Allter.  Also  two  surplises."  All  these 
were  the  gift  of  Queen  Mary.  There  was  be- 
sides a  costly  Communion  service  presented  by 
king  and  queen.  Against  the  walls  were  "  the 
Decalougue  viz.,  the  ten  Commandments,  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed  drawne  in  Eng- 
land." 

G.  Dyer,  the  early  warden  of  the  chapel  gave 
also  according  to  his  means  and  wrote  down 
for  posterity  the  manner  of  his  generosity: 
11  To  my  labour  for  making  the  Wather  cock 
and  Spindel,  to  Duing  the  Commandements 
and  allter  rome  and  the  Pulpet,  to  Duing  the 
Church  and  Winders,  mor  to  Duing  the  Gal- 
lary  and  the  King's  Armes,  fortey  pounds, 
which  I  freely  give."  In  1710  the  chapel  was 
rebuilt  to  twice  its  original  size,  to  accommo- 
date the  rapidly  growing  congregation.  As 
now  arranged  the  pulpit  was  on  the  north  side, 
directly  opposite  a  pew  occupied  by  the  royal 
governors  and  another  given  over  to  officers  of 
the  British  army  and  navy.    In  the  western  gal- 


300  St.  Botolph's  Town 

lery  was  the  first  organ  ever  nsed  in  America. 
The  fashion  in  which  the  chapel  acquired  this 
14  instrument  "  (now  in  the  possession  of  St. 
John's  parish,  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire)  is 
most  interesting.  It  was  originally  the  prop- 
erty of  Mr.  Thomas  Brattle,  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  old  Brattle  street  church  and  a  most 
enthusiastic  musician.  He  imported  the  organ 
from  London  in  1713  and,  at  his  death,  left  it 
by  will  to  the  church  with  which  his  name  is 
associated,  "  if  they  shall  accept  thereof  and 
within  a  year  after  my  disease  procure  a  sober 
person  that  can  play  skillfully  thereon  with  a 
loud  noise."  In  the  event  of  these  conditions 
not  being  complied  with  it  was  provided  that 
the  organ  should  go  to  King's  Chapel.  The 
Brattle  street  people  failed  to  qualify  and  the 
Episcopalians  got  the  organ.  It  was  used  in 
Boston  until  1756  and  then  sold  to  St.  Paul's 
church  in  Newburyport,  where  it  was  in  con- 
stant use  for  eighty  years,  after  which  it  was 
acquired  for  the  State  street  Chapel  of  the 
Portsmouth  church,  where  it  still  gives  forth 
sweet  sounds  every  Lord's  day. 

High  up  on  the  pulpit  of  King's  Chapel  stood 
a  quaint  hour-glass  richly  mounted  in  brass 
and  suspended  from  the  pillars,  then  as  now, 
were  the  escutcheons  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        301 

Francis  Nicholson,  Captain  Hamilton,  and  the 
governors  Dudley,  Shute,  Burnet,  Belcher  and 
Shirley.  It  was  arranged  that  the  royal  gov- 
ernor and  his  deputy  were  always  to  be  of  the 
vestry.  Joseph  Dudley  accordingly  hung  up 
his  armorial  bearings  and  took  his  place  under 
the  canopy  and  drapery  of  the  state  pew  as 
soon  as  ever  he  came  back  to  the  land  in  which 
his  father  had  been  a  distinguished  Puritan. 
There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  did  not  do 
this  conscientiously,  however.  Certainly  it 
must  have  been  much  pleasanter  here  for  a 
governor  than  in  the  bare  meeting-houses 
where  everything  he  might  or  might  not  do 
would  be  counted  to  his  discredit. 

During  Colonel  Shute 's  term  of  office  the 
smallpox,  which  Boston  had  escaped  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  again  visited  the  town  (1721). 
Nearly  six  thousand  people  contracted  the  dis- 
ease, of  whom  almost  one  thousand  died.  In- 
oculation was  urged  and  Cotton  Mather  did 
really  noble  service  in  pushing  its  propaganda, 
soon  converting  to  his  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
the  practice  Dr.  Zabdiel  Boylston,  an  eminent 
physician,  and  Benjamin  Colman,  first  minis- 
ter of  the  Brattle  street  Church  and  for  nearly 
half  a  century  (1701-1747)  one  of  the  famous 
preachers  of  the  Province.    Dr.  William  Doug- 


302  St.  Botolph's  Town 

las  was  the  chief  opponent  of  the  new  theory 
and  he  printed  in  the  paper  of  the  Franklins 
his  attacks  upon  those  who  urged  it.  Two 
years  after  the  scourge  Shute  went  to  England 
on  a  visit  from  which  he  never  returned,  and 
Lieutenant  Governor  William  Dummer  took 
the  chair,  which,  as  the  event  proved,  he  was 
to  occupy  for  nearly  six  years. 

During  this  interim  both  Increase  and  Cot- 
ton Mather  died,  the  one  in  1723,  the  other  five 
years  later.  The  father  had  preached  sixty- 
six  years  and  had  presided  over  Harvard  Col- 
lege for  twenty;  the  son  was  in  the  pulpit 
forty-seven  years  and  was  one  of  the  over- 
seers of  the  college.  To  bear  him  to  his  bury- 
ing-place  on  Copp's  Hill  six  of  the  first  min- 
isters of  Boston  gave  their  services,  and  the 
body  was  followed  by  all  the  principal  officials, 
ministers,  scholars  and  men  of  affairs,  while 
the  streets  were  thronged  and  the  windows  were 
filled  "  with  sorrowful  spectators."  How  ex- 
pensive this  funeral  was  I  do  not  know,  but 
when  Thomas  Salter  died  (in  1714)  the  bill  was 
as  follows: 

£     s.  d. 

50  yds.  of  Plush 10     8  4 

24  yds.  silk  crepe  .         .         .         .  2  16  0 

9  3-8  black  cloth 115  0 

10  yards  fustian    .         .         .         .        .  16  8 


GilVKK\<iK    WILLIAM     HLKXET 


Reign  of  the  R03 

-al  < 

otovernors        303 

Wadding 0     6  9 

Stay  tape  and  buckram          . 

7     7  6 

13  yds.  shalloon     . 

2  12  0 

To  making  ye  cloths 

4  17  0 

Fans  and  girdles    . 

0  10  0 

Gloves            .... 

10     9  6 

Hatte,  shoes,  stockings 

3  15  0 

50  1  2  yds.  lutestring 

25     5  0 

Several  rings 

3  10  0 

Also  buttons,  silk,  cloggs 

2  yards  of  cypress 

3  10  0 

To  33  gallons  of  wine  @  4s.  6 

d 

7     8  6 

To  12  ozs.  spice  @  18d  . 

0  18  0 

To  1-4  cwt.  sugar  @  7s  . 

0  18  0 

To  opening  ye  Tomb     . 

) 

To  ringing  ye  Bells 

f.    3  10  0 

To  ye  Pauls 

) 

Doctor's  and  nurse's  bills 

10     0  0 

—  the  whole  amounting  to  over  £100. 

Enter  now  as  governor  William  Burnet,  son 
of  the  historian  bishop.  He  arrived  in  Boston 
July  13,  1728,  and  was  escorted  from  the  Neck 
to  the  Bunch  of  Grapes  Tavern  by  a  large  body 
of  enthusiastic  citizens,  among  them  the  fa- 
mous Mather  Byles,  who  dropped  into  poetry 
on  this  as  on  many  a  later  occasion  of  state. 
Burnet  had  in  his  train  a  tutor,  a  black  laun- 
dress, a  steward  and  a  French  cook.  Upon  the 
latter,  as  will  be  easily  understood,  the  Bos- 
tonians  gazed  with  particular  awe.  But  Bur- 
net was  merely  preparing  to  live  here  as  he 


304  St.  Botolph's  Town 

had  lived  in  England  and,  later,  in  New  York. 
He  was  a  true  English  gentleman,  cultivated, 
courteous,  affable  and  inclined  to  be  all  things 
to  all  men.  Had  he  come  in  any  other  capacity 
than  that  of  royal  governor  he  would  have 
found  life  in  Boston  exceedingly  agreeable. 
But  one  of  his  instructions  was  to  push  the 
matter  of  salary,  and  as  soon  as  this  matter 
was  broached  the  people  forgot  that  he  was 
personally  a  delightful  man.  As  if  to  avert 
any  plea  of  poverty  which  the  House  might 
advance,  he  referred  in  his  first  address,  ask- 
ing for  a  salary  of  £1,000,  to  the  lavish  fashion 
in  which  he  had  been  welcomed.  But  this  quite 
failed  to  make  those  whom  he  would  have  con- 
ciliated agree  to  what  he  demanded.  They  had 
planted  themselves  once  and  for  all  where  the 
war  of  the  Eevolution  found  them  —  on  the 
position  that  all  "  impositions,  taxes  and  dis- 
bursements of  money  were  to  be  made  by  their 
own  freewill,  and  not  by  dictation  of  king, 
council  or  parliament."  We  must,  as  George 
E.  Ellis  lucidly  points  out  in  his  study  of  the 
royal  governors,  honour  their  pluck  and  prin- 
ciple, while  at  the  same  time  doing  justice  to 
the  "  firm  loyalty,  the  self-respect,  the  dignity 
and  persistency,  with  which  Burnet  stood  to 
his  instructions,  nobly  rejecting  as  an  attempt 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        305 

at  bribery,  all  the  evasive  ingenuity  of  the 
recusant  House  in  offering  him  three  times  the 
sum  as  a  present,  while  he  was  straitened  by 
actual  pecuniary  need." 

The  dissension  which  followed  after  this 
question  had  been  broached  was  harsh  in  the 
extreme  and,  in  the  midst  of  it,  the  governor, 
while  driving  from  Cambridge  to  Boston  in 
his  carriage,  was  overturned  on  the  causeway, 
cast  into  the  water  and  so  chilled  as  to  be 
thrown  into  a  fever  from  which  he  died  on 
September  7,  1729.  The  Bostonians  seem  to 
have  realized  that  chagrin  and  excitement 
probably  played  as  much  part  in  hastening 
his  end  as  the  ducking  which  was  the  immedi- 
ate cause  of  it,  and  they  buried  him  with  great 
pomp  at  an  expense  of  eleven  hundred  pounds. 

The  funeral  was  conducted  after  the  English 
fashion  and  not  in  the  slightly  mitigated  Puri- 
tan manner  of  Cotton  Mather's  interment. 
(Before  Mather's  day  there  had  been  wont  to 
be  no  service  whatever,  the  company  coming 
together  at  the  tolling  of  a  bell,  carrying  the 
body  solemnly  to  the  grave  and  standing  by 
until  it  was  covered  with  earth  and  that,  not 
in  consecrated  ground,  but  in  some  such  enclo- 
sure by  the  roadside  as  one  sees  frequently 
to-day  in   sparsely   settled   country  villages.) 


306  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Gloves  and  rings  were  given  to  the  mourning 
members  of  the  General  Court,  and  the  minis- 
ters of  King's  Chapel,  to  three  physicians,  the 
bearers,  the  president  of  Harvard  College  and 
the  women  who  laid  out  the  body ;  while  gloves 
only  were  given  to  the  under-bearers,  the  jus- 
tices, the  captains  of  the  castle  and  of  the  man- 
of-war  in  the  harbour,  to  officers  of  the  cus- 
toms, professors  and  fellows  of  the  college,  and 
the  ministers  of  Boston  who  happened  to  at- 
tend the  funeral.  Wine  in  abundance  was  fur- 
nished to  the  Boston  regiment.  Apropos  of 
Governor  Burnet's  funeral  Mr.  Arthur  Gil- 
man  states  in  his  readable  "  Story  of  Boston  " 
that  the  distribution  of  rings  was  common  on 
such  occasions,  and  until  1721  gloves  and  scarfs 
were  also  given  away.  But  in  1741  wine  and 
rum  were  forbidden  to  be  distributed  as  scarfs 
had  been  forbidden  twenty  years  earlier. 
(There  had,  however,  been  some  advance  since 
the  time  of  Charles  II,  when  on  the  occasion 
of  the  burying  of  a  lord,  as  the  oration  was 
being  delivered  "  a  large  pot  of  wine  stood 
upon  the  coffin,  out  of  which  everyone  drank 
to  the  health  of  the  deceased.") 

Five  years  after  Burnet's  death  the  General 
Court  voted  his  orphan  children  three  thousand 
pounds. 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        307 


And  now  we  come  to  the  appointment  of 
Belcher,  with  whom  this  chapter  opened.  He 
was  in  London,  on  the  Province's  behalf,  at 
the  time  when  the  news  of  Burnet's  death  ar- 
rived and,  by  the  exercise  of  not  a  little  diplo- 
macy, he  managed  to  get  himself  commissioned 
governor  (January  8,  1730),  and  so  was  able 
to  land  in  Boston  from  a  warship  in  the  au- 
tumn of  that  same  year.  He  also  was  received 
with  signs  of  rejoicing,  accompanied  by  the  in- 
evitable sermon.  To  his  credit,  it  should  be 
said,  that  he  alone,  of  the  governors  chosen  by 
the  king,  seems  to  have  stood  faithful  to  his 
paternal  religion.  He  gave  the  land  for  the 
Hollis  Street  Church,  of  which  Rev.  Mather 
Byles,  Sr.,  was  minister,  and,  for  many  years, 
lived  conveniently  near  to  this  parish  of  which 
he  was  a  patron.  The  house  still  standing  in 
Cambridge,  with  which  Belcher's  name  is  asso- 
ciated, was  an  inheritance  from  his  father  and 
had  passed  out  of  his  hands  ten  years  before 
he  became  governor. 

Apart  from  the  salary  matter,  concerning 
which  he  of  course  strove  with  no  more  and 
no  less  success  than  his  predecessors,  Belcher's 
administration  of  eleven  years  was  a  very 
peaceable   one.     I  have  elsewhere1    given   an 

1  See  "  Among  Old  New  England  Inns." 


308  St.  Botoiph's  Town 

account  of  the  very  interesting  journey  that 
he  and  his  Council  made  to  Deerfield  for  the 
purpose  of  settling  a  grievance  of  the  Indians 
in  that  section.  The  governor  lost  his  wife 
during  his  term  of  office  and  the  News-Letter 
of  October  14,  1736,  obligingly  describes  in  de- 
tail the  ensuing  funeral : 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  Sewall  made  a  very  suitable 
prayer.  The  coffin  was  covered  with  black  vel- 
vet and  richly  adorned.  The  pall  was  sup- 
ported by  the  Honourable  Spencer  Phipps 
Esq.,  our  Lieutenant-Governor;  William  Dum- 
mer  Esq.,  formerly  Lieutenant  Governor  and 
Commander-in  Chief  of  this  province;  Benja- 
min Lynde,  Esq.,  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esq., 
Edmund  Quincy,  Esq.,  and  Adam  Winthrop 
Esq.  His  Excellency,  with  his  children  and 
family  followed  the  corpse  all  in  deep  mourn- 
ing; next  went  the  several  relatives,  according 
to  their  respective  degrees,  who  were  followed 
by  a  great  many  of  the  principal  gentlewomen 
in  town;  after  whom  went  the  gentlemen  of 
His  Majesty's  Council;  the  reverend  ministers 
of  this  and  the  neighbouring  towns  the  rev- 
erend President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege; a  great  number  of  officers  both  of  the 
civil  and  military  order,  with  a  number  of  other 
gentlemen. 


Reign  of  the  Royal  Governors        309 

"  His  Excellency's  coach,  drawn  by  four 
horses,  was  covered  with  black  cloth  and 
adorned  with  escutcheons  of  the  coats  of  arms 
both  of  his  Excellency  and  of  his  deceased  lady 
[She  had  been  the  daughter  of  Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernor William  Partridge  of  New  Hampshire]. 
All  the  bells  in  town  were  tolled;  and  during 
the  time  of  the  procession  the  half  minute  guns 
begun,  first  at  His  Majesty's  Castle  William, 
which  were  followed  by  those  on  board  His 
Majesty's  ship  '  Squirrel  '  and  many  other 
ships  in  the  harbour  their  colors  being  all  day 
raised  to  the  heighth  as  usual  on  such  occa- 
sions. The  streets  through  which  the  funeral 
passed,  the  tops  of  the  houses  and  windows  on 
both  sides,  were  crowded  with  innumerable 
spectators." 

Belcher  was  removed  from  his  post  in  Bos- 
ton May  6,  1741,  and,  after  an  interval  of  four 
years,  was  made  governor  of  New  Jersey, 
where  he  was  welcomed  with  open  arms  and 
did  much  to  help  Jonathan  Edwards  —  in 
whose  "  Great  Awakening  "  he  had  been 
deeply  interested  —  put  Princeton  University 
on  its  feet.  But  he  always  retained  his  affec- 
tion for  his  native  place  and  he  enjoined  that 
his  remains  be  brought  to  Cambridge  and  bur- 
ied in  the  cemetery  adjoining  Christ  Church,  in 


310  St.  Botolph's  Town 

the  same  grave  with  his  cousin  Judge  Reming- 
ton, who  had  been  his  ardent  friend.  He  died 
August  31,  1757.  He  was  succeeded  in  Boston 
by  William  Shirley,  a  man  whose  stay  here  was 
bound  up  with  such  an  interesting  romance  that 
I  have  chosen  to  discuss  his  career  along  with 
the  events  traced  in  the  next  chapter.  It  must, 
however,  be  plain  by  now  that  Boston  has  ad- 
vanced a  long  way  from  the  prim  town  over 
which  the  Mathers  held  sway.  Already  it  has 
become  the  scene  and  centre  of  a  miniature 
court,  with  the  state,  the  forms  and  the  cere- 
monies appertaining  thereto.  Gold  lace,  ruffled 
cuffs,  scarlet  uniform  and  powdered  wigs  are 
by  this  time  to  be  encountered  everywhere  on 
the  street,  and  even  when  the  governor  went 
to  the  Thursday  lecture  he  was  richly  attired 
and  escorted  by  halberds.  The  bulk  of  the  peo- 
ple to  be  sure  are  still  thrifty  mechanics,  indus- 
trious and  plain-living;  but  there  are  many 
persons  of  wealth,  intelligence  and  culture,  and 
these  throng  King's  Chapel  on  Sunday.  For 
the  Brocade  Age  has  dawned. 


XIV 
a  araranra  res 

No  -ir.gle  individual  contributed  more  gen- 
erously to  King's  I  ha]  ■  Qiao  Sir  Charles 
Harry  Frankland,  the  hei  Boston1 

charming  colonial  romance.     Frankland 'h  inti- 
ma*  nor  Shirley  laid  * 

stone  of  the  building   (in   1749; 

both  gentlemen  seem  to  have  felt  ke 
that  services  here  should   flourish.     This  we 
must  needs  keep  in  mind  about  Frank 
we  follow  the  outlines  of  his  r  it 

serves  to  prove,  in  a  way,  the  contention  of  the 

ton   Puritans   that   loyalty   I 
England  doctrines  did  not  of  necessity  influ* 
greatly  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  centnry 
the  private  life  of  those  in  high  places. 

When  Jonathan  Belcher  was  transferred 
from  the  governorship  of  Massachusetts  to 
that  of  Xew  Jersey  and,  by  the  death  of  John 
JekyL  the  office  of  collector  of  the  port  of  Bos- 
t'.r.  r.-'rVi.::.-  -r.  '.'■  -  •>.::■-.  *..'::  '-  v^-.-i.'.*..  t:.e  '.:.'.'. -m 

v: : 


312  St.  Botolph's  Town 

of  these  royal  favours  was  offered  by  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  to  the  nephew  of  Sir  Thomas 
Frankland,  then  one  of  the  Lords  of  the  Ad- 
miralty. This  nephew  —  who  was  also  heir- 
presumptive  to  the  baronetcy  and  to  the  family 
estates  at  Thirkleby  and  Mattersea  —  was, 
however,  a  young  man  of  only  twenty-four  at 
this  time  and  could  boast  no  previous  experi- 
ence in  colonial  affairs,  as  could  William  Shir- 
ley,—  a  lawyer  who  had  already  lived  seven 
years  in  this  country.  The  outcome  of  the 
matter  was  therefore,  that  Shirley,  whose  wife 
had  strong  influence  at  court,  was  made  gov- 
ernor and  Frankland  came  to  New  England  as 
collector  of  the  port  of  Boston. 

Both  were  well  born,  highly-bred  English- 
men, Frankland  resembling  both  in  manners 
and  person  the  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  whom  he 
had  the  happiness  to  count  among  his  friends. 
He  had  been  born  in  Bengal,  where  his  father 
was  a  colonial  officer,  and  to  this  fact  his  sym- 
pathetic biographer,  the  Beverend  Elias  Na- 
son,  attributes  the  trend  of  his  talents  towards 
art  and  literature  rather  than  towards  politics 
or  trade.  In  Frankland 's  face,  also,  with  its 
noble  cast  of  features  and  its  expression  of 
peculiar  melancholy  may  be  discerned  that 
strain  of  introspection  and  self-analysis  which 


,.*t 

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snbipr 

GOVEKNOR    WILLIAM    SHIRLEY 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        313 

not  infrequently  characterizes  the  Eastern-born 
children  of  English  parents. 

Both  Frankland  and  Shirley  were,  of  course, 
bound  to  count  immensely  in  Boston  society 
of  that  time.  The  important  question  of  the 
day  in  the  highest  circles  of  the  town  was 
1 '  How  is  this  done  at  court !  ' '  And  here  were 
two  handsome  fellows  who  could  tell  with  ex- 
actness just  the  procedure  fitting  on  each  and 
every  state  occasion.  By  the  Amorys,  Ap- 
thorps,  Bollans,  Hutchinsons,  Prices,  Auch- 
mutys,  Chardons,  Wendells,  and  Olivers,  who 
held  the  money,  offices  and  power  in  the  chief 
settlement  of  New  England,  they  were  there- 
fore welcomed  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm. 
Nason,  who  has  made  a  careful  if  limited  study 
of  the  society  which  greeted  them,  tells  us  that 
it  is  hardly  possible  for  us  to  conceive  what 
distinction  title,  blood,  escutcheon,  and  family 
conferred  in  that  regime.  "  Those  gentlemen 
and  ladies  who  occupied  the  north,  or  court 
end  of  the  town,  who  read  the  Spectator,  Sam- 
uel Richardson's  Pamela  and  the  prayer-book, 
who  had  manors  of  a  thousand  acres  in  the 
country  cultivated  by  slaves  from  Africa  .  .  . 
were  many  of  them  allied  to  the  first  families 
in  England  and  it  was  their  chief  ambition  to 
keep  up  the   ceremonies   and  customs   of  the 


314  St.  Botolph's  Town 

aristocratic  society  which  they  represented.  A 
baronet  was  then  approached  with  greatest 
deference;  a  coach  and  four  with  an  armorial 
bearing  and  liveried  servants  was  a  munition 
against  indignity;  the  stamp  of  the  crown 
upon  a  piece  of  paper,  even,  invested  it  with 
an  association  almost  sacred.  In  those  digni- 
taries, —  who  in  brocade  vest,  goldlace  coat, 
broad  ruffled  sleeves  and  small  clothes;  who, 
with  three-cornered  hat  and  powdered  wig, 
side-arms  and  silver  shoe  buckles,  promenaded 
Queen  street  and  the  Mall,  spread  themselves 
through  the  King's  chapel,  or  discussed  the 
measures  of  the  Pelhams,  Walpole  and  Pitt,  at 
the  Rose  and  Crown,  —  as  much  of  aristocratic 
pride,  as  much  of  courtly  consequence  dis- 
played itself,  as  in  the  frequenters  of  Hyde 
Park  or  Regent  street." 

An  excellent  contemporaneous  description  of 
life  in  Boston  at  just  this  period  has  come  down 
to  us  in  the  manuscript  of  a  Mr.  Bennett,  from 
which  Horace  E.  Scudder  quotes  freely  in  the 
invaluable  Memorial  History:  "  There  are 
several  families  in  Boston  that  keep  a  coach 
and  pair  of  horses,  and  some  few  drive  with 
four  horses ;  but  for  chaises  and  saddle-horses, 
considering  the  bulk  of  the  place  they  outdo 
London.  .  .  .  Their  roads,   though   they  have 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        315 

no  turnpikes  are  exceedingly  good  in  summer; 
and  it  is  safe  travelling  night  or  day  for  they 
have  no  high-way  robbers  to  interrupt  them. 
It  is  pleasant  riding  through  the  woods;  and 
the  country  is  pleasantly  interspersed  with 
farmhouses,  cottages,  and  some  few  gentle- 
men's seats  between  the  towns.  When  the 
ladies  drive  out  to  take  the  air,  it  is  generally 
in  a  chaise  or  chair,  and  then  but  a  single  horse, 
and  they  have  a  negro  servant  to  drive  them. 
The  gentlemen  ride  out  here  as  in  England, 
some  in  chairs,  and  others  on  horseback,  with 
their  negroes  to  attend  them.  They  travel  in 
much  the  same  manner  on  business  as  for 
pleasure,  and  are  attended  in  both  by  their 
black  equipages.  .  .  . 

"  For  their  domestic  amusements,  every 
afternoon,  after  drinking  tea,  the  gentlemen 
and  ladies  walk  the  Mall,  and  from  thence  ad- 
journ to  one  another's  house  to  spend  the  eve- 
ning, —  those  that  are  not  disposed  to  attend 
the  evening  lecture;  which  they  may  do,  if 
they  please,  six  nights  in  seven  the  year  round. 
What  they  call  the  Mall  is  a  walk  on  a  fine 
green  common  adjoining  to  the  south-west  side 
of  the  town.  It  is  near  half  a  mile  over,  with 
two  rows  of  young  trees  planted  opposite  to 
each   other,  with   a   fine   footway  between   in 


316  St.  Botolph's  Town 

imitation  of  St.  James  Park;  and  part  of  the 
bay  of  the  sea  which  encircles  the  town,  taking 
its  course  along  the  north-west  side  of  the 
Common,  —  by  which  it  is  bounded  on  the  one 
side  and  by  the  country  on  the  other,  —  forms 
a  beautiful  canal  in  view  of  the  walk.  .  .  .  Not- 
withstanding plays  and  such  like  diversions 
do  not  obtain  here  [the  famous  performance 
of  Otway's  "  Orphan  "  at  the  British  Coffee 
House,  with  its  attendant  theatrical  riot,  did 
not  occur  until  1750]  they  don't  seem  to  be 
dispirited  nor  moped  for  want  of  them,  for 
both  ladies  and  gentlemen  dress  and  appear  as 
gay,  in  common,  as  courtiers  in  England  on  a 
coronation  or  birthday.  ..." 

It  is  this  Boston  that  we  see  in  the  pictures 
of  Copley,  himself  a  Bostonian  by  birth,  and 
described  by  Trumbull,  when  he  visited  him  in 
London,  as  an  "  elegant-looking  man,  dressed 
in  a  fine  maroon  cloth  with  gilt  buttons.' ' 

Small  wonder  that  a  young  man  who  became 
the  pet  of  a  Boston  like  this  felt  that  he  could 
not  marry,  even  though  he  must  needs  love,  a 
girl  whom  he  had  found  scrubbing  the  floor  of 
a  public  house.  The  time  of  that  historic  first 
encounter  at  the  Fountain  Inn  in  quaint  old 
Marblehead  between  these  famous  lovers  was 
the  summer  of  1742.     Frankland's  official  du- 


SIR    HARKY    KRANKLAND 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        317 

ties  had  sent  him  riding  down  to  Marblehead 
where  the  fortification,  since  named  and  to-day 
still  known  as  Fort  Sewall,  was  then  just  being 
built  (at  an  expense  of  almost  seven  hundred 
pounds)  for  the  defence  of  the  harbour  against 
French  cruisers.  On  the  way  to  the  fort  he 
stopped  for  a  draught  of  cooling  ale  at  the  Inn 
where  Agnes  did  odd  jobs  for  a  few  shillings 
a  month. 

And  lo!  scrubbing  the  tavern  floor  there 
knelt  before  him  a  beautiful  child-girl  of  six- 
teen, with  black  curling  hair,  shy  dark  eyes 
and  a  voice  that  proved  to  be  of  exquisite 
sweetness,  when  the  maiden,  glancing  up,  gave 
her  good-day  to  the  gallant's  greeting.  The 
girl's  feet  were  bare,  and  this  so  moved  Frank- 
land's  compassion  that  he  gently  gave  her  a 
piece  of  gold  with  which  to  buy  shoes  and 
stockings.  Then  he  rode  thoughtfully  away  to 
conduct  his  business  at  the  fort. 

But  he  did  not  by  any  means  forget  that 
charming  child  just  budding  into  winsome 
womanhood  whom  he  had  seen  performing 
with  patience  and  grace  the  duties  that  fell  to 
her  lot  as  the  poor  daughter  of  some  honest 
hard-working  fisher-folk  of  the  town.  "When 
he  happened  to  be  again  in  Marblehead  on  busi- 
ness he  inquired  at  once  for  her,  and  then,  see- 


318  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ing  her  feet  still  without  shoes  and  stockings, 
asked  a  bit  teasingly  what  she  had  done  with 
the  money  he  gave  her.  Quite  frankly  she  re- 
plied, blushing  the  while,  that  the  shoes  and 
stockings  were  bought  but  that  she  kept  them 
to  wear  to  meeting. 

This  reply  and  the  sight  for  the  second  time 
of  the  girl  engaged  in  heavy  work  for  which 
her  slender  figure  and  delicate  face  showed  her 
to  be  wholly  unfitted  put  it  into  Frankland's 
head  to  take  her  away  to  Boston  and  educate 
her  for  less  menial  employment.  The  consent 
of  the  girl's  parents  to  this  proposal  appears 
to  have  been  given  with  rather  surprising  read- 
iness; but  it  is  more  than  likely  that  Agnes 
took  the  matter  into  her  own  hands,  as  many 
a  girl  since  has  done,  and  that  to  permit  her 
to  go  was  regarded  as  the  wiser  course. 
Women  matured  early  in  those  days,  and  a 
strong  reciprocal  emotion,  innocent  though  it 
undoubtedly  was  in  its  nature,  must  have  been 
aroused  in  this  girl's  heart  by  the  ardent  ad- 
miration of  the  handsome  gentleman  from 
Boston.  Moreover  the  Eeverend  Dr.  Edward 
Holyoke,  who  had  been  the  family  pastor  at 
Marblehead,  was  now  president  of  Harvard 
College,  and  it  was  probably  expected  that  he 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        319 

i 

would  exercise  pastoral  oversight  over  this 
maiden  he  had  known  so  long. 

To  do  Frankland  justice,  however,  it  should 
at  once  be  said  that  his  intentions  at  the  start 
seem  only  to  have  been  those  of  a  friendly 
guardian.  If  the  heir  to  Sir  Thomas  Frank- 
land  is  seized  with  a  benevolent  impulse  and 
wishes  to  undertake  the  expense  of  educating 
a  young  person  of  humble  parentage,  who  is 
there  to  say  him  nay?  Mrs.  Shirley  might 
laughingly  shake  her  finger  at  him  and  tell  him 
to  "  beware  "  on  one  of  those  occasions  when 
Agnes  has  looked  unusually  charming  while 
dining  with  her  and  her  daughters  at  Shirley 
House  in  Roxbury,  but  Frankland  would  of 
course  protest  his  excellent  intentions,  —  and 
the  matter  would  be  dropped. 

It  seems  to  me,  indeed,  as  I  examine  the  evi- 
dence, that  the  relation  between  these  two  con- 
tinued to  be  that  of  ward  and  guardian  until 
Agnes  was  well  over  eighteen,  the  age  at  which 
a  girl  becomes  legally  her  own  mistress.  For 
several  years  she  is  taught  reading,  writing, 
grammar,  music  and  embroidery  by  the  best 
tutors  the  town  can  provide,  and  though  she 
grows  steadily  in  beauty  and  maidenly  charm 
she  still  retains  that  childish  sweetness  and 


320  St.  Botolph's  Town 

simplicity  which  first  won  Frankland's  heart. 

Then  these  two  suddenly  discover  that  they 
are  all  in  all  to  each  other.  The  thought  of 
being  separated  is  insupportable  to  them  both. 
But  Frankland  has  been  suddenly  elevated  to 
the  baronetcy  and  is  no  longer  his  own  master. 
Agnes's  father,  on  the  other  hand,  has  died 
and  there  is  no  one  to  take  the  matter  firmly 
in  hand  on  her  behalf.  And  so  it  comes  about 
that  this  low-born  girl  and  this  high-born  man 
find  themselves  in  a  situation  for  which  Agnes 
is  to  pay  by  many  a  day  of  tears  and  Sir 
Harry  by  many  a  night  of  bitter  self-reproach. 
Of  course  he  paid  in  money,  too.  How  else  can 
one  understand  his  purchase,  for  the  sum  of 
fifty  pounds  "  lawful  money,"  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1745  of  Mrs.  Surriage's  "  right  and 
title  to  one  seventh  part  of  a  vast  tract  of  land 
in  Maine  "  inherited  by  her  from  her  father? 
Frankland  never  did  anything  with  this  land 
and  the  grantor's  title  to  it  was  none  too  clear. 
One  can  only  conclude,  therefore,  that  this 
transfer  of  fifty  pounds  was  by  way  of  deli- 
cately making  a  substantial  gift  to  the  widowed 
mother  of  the  girl  the  baronet  felt  himself  to 
be  wronging. 

We  caught  a  hint  from  Dunton's  letters  that 
Boston  morality  had  been  somewhat  vitiated 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        321 

by  the  introduction  of  the  habits  and  standards 
of  crown  officials.  By  Frankland 's  time  many 
a  thing  for  which  a  man  would  have  had  to 
suffer  the  stocks  and  women  the  ducking-stool 
—  or  worse  —  in  the  old  days  was  winked  at 
because  the  parties  concerned  sat  in  high 
places.  The  heart  of  the  people  was  still  sound, 
however,  and  those  Puritan  maidens  who  had 
been  Agnes's  school-fellows,  naturally  shrank 
from  her  when  they  came  to  realize  that  she 
and  the  collector  of  the  port  of  Boston  were 
unwedded  lovers.  Gradually,  too,  the  ladies 
whose  good  opinion  Frankland  valued  grew  in- 
dignant at  him.  Thus  it  was  that  at  this  stage 
of  the  story  he  decided  to  live  in  rural  Hop- 
kinton  rather  than  in  censorious  Boston. 

Already  a  former  rector  of  King's  Chapel, 
the  Reverend  Roger  Price,  had  purchased  land 
and  started  a  mission  church  in  this  charming 
village  of  Middlesex  county.  From  him  Frank- 
land  bought  nearly  four  hundred  acres,  build- 
ing upon  them  (in  1751)  a  commodious  man- 
sion house.  The  following  year  he  and  Agnes 
took  up  their  abode  on  the  place.  Here  it  was, 
then,  that  Frankland  wrote  the  greater  part  of 
that  interesting  Journal,  which  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  rooms  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Societv,  of  two  hundred  hand-written 


322  St.  Botolph's  Town 

pages  and  which  reflects  so  strikingly  the 
man's  varying  moods.  Of  politics  there  is  here 
and  there  a  dash,  of  horticulture  one  finds  a 
great  deal,  of  current  events  there  are  interest- 
ing mentions ;  but  the  bulk  of  the  book  is  given 
over  to  philosophical  reflection  that  bears  wit- 
ness to  the  strain  of  introspection  in  Frank- 
land's  temperament  and  stamps  him  at  once  as 
far  removed  from  the  careless  libertine  some 
writers  would  make  him  out. 

Under  the  date  of  March  17,  1755,  we  read: 
"  Mr.  Coles  gathers  anemone  seed.  Wrote  by 
packet  to  mother;  Park  and  Willis  for  shoes. 
Paid  for  shaving  in  full  for  this  and  the  next 
month. 

"  Nothing  considerable  can  ever  be  done  by 
the  colonies  in  the  present  disturbed  state. 
The  plan  of  union  as  concerted  by  the  commis- 
sioners at  Albany,  if  carried  into  execution, 
would  soon  make  a  formidable  people.  .  .  . 

"  The  uneasiness  thou  feelest;  the  misfor- 
tunes thou  bewailest;  behold  the  root  from 
which  they  spring,  even  thine  own  folly,  thine 
own  pride,  thine  own  distempered  fancy.  .  .  . 

"  In  all  thy  desires,  let  reason  go  along  with 
thee;  and  fix  not  thy  hope  beyond  the  bounds 
of  probability,  so  shall  success  attend  thy  un- 
dertakings, and  thy  heart  shall  not  be  vexed 
with  disappointments." 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        323 

Horticulture  was  Frankland's  delight  and  he 
introduced  upon  the  Hopkinton  estate  a  great 
variety  of  the  choicest  fruit,  —  such  as  apples, 
pears,  plums,  peaches,  cherries  of  excellent 
quality,  apricots  and  quinces  from  England,  — 
and  upon  the  extensive  grounds  of  the  place 
he  set  out  elms  and  other  ornamental  trees, 
embellishing  the  walks  of  his  garden  with  box 
lilac  and  hawthorn.  The  interchange  of  gar- 
dening advice  and  of  recipes  was  the  favourite 
amenity  of  the  day  and  we  find  a  Boston  ac- 
quaintance sending  to  the  baronet  with  a  box 
of  lemons,  these  lines : 

"  You  know  from  Eastern  India  came 
The  skill  of  making  punch  as  did  the  name. 
And  as  the  name  consists  of  letters  five, 
By  five  ingredients  is  it  kept  alive. 
To  purest  water  sugar  must  be  joined, 
With  these  the  grateful  acid  is  combined. 
Some  any  sours  they  get  contented  use, 
But  men  of  taste  do  that  from  Tagus  choose. 
When  now  these  three  are  mixed  with  care 
Then  added  be  of  spirit  a  small  share. 
And  that  you  may  the  drink  quite  perfect  see 
Atop  the  musky  nut  must  grated  be." 

That  Sir  Harry's  A  ready  never  came  to  bore 
him  was  very  likely  due  to  these  diversions  and 
occupations.  Moreover,  he  had  his  dozen 
slaves  to  oversee,  there  was  good  fishing  as 


324  St.  Botolph's  Town 

well  as  good  hunting,  —  and  Agnes  had  a  mind 
able  to  share  with  him  the  enjoyment  of  the 
latest  works  of  Kichardson,  Steele,  Swift,  Addi- 
son and  Pope,  sent  over  in  big  boxes  from 
England.  The  country  about  Hopkinton  was 
then,  as  to-day,  a  wonder  of  hill  and  valley, 
meadow  and  stream,  while  only  a  dozen  miles 
or  so  from  Frankland  Hall  was  the  famous 
"Wayside  Inn  where  his  men  friends  could  put 
up  by  night  after  enjoying  by  day  the  hunting 
and  wines  he  had  to  offer.  Then  the  village 
rector  was  always  to  be  counted  on  for  com- 
panionship and  breezy  chat.  For  that  worthy 
seems  not  to  have  felt  it  his  duty  to  admonish 
Frankland.  And  Sir  Harry,  on  the  other  hand, 
carefully  observed  all  the  forms  of  his  religion 
and  treated  Agnes  with  all  the  respect  due  a 
wife.  He  still  continued,  however,  to  neglect 
the  one  attention  which  would  have  made  her 
really  happy.  A  close  approach  to  death  was 
needed  to  bring  this  duty  home  to  him. 

I  have  elsewhere  l  told  the  story  of  the  visit 
these  two  made  to  Lisbon  in  1755  and  of 
Agnes 's  heroic  action  in  her  lover's  behalf  dur- 
ing the  earthquake  of  that  year.  Frankland 's 
awful  suffering  it  was,  at  the  time  when  he 
lay  pinned  down  by  fallen  stone  and  tortured 

'See  "  Romance  of  Old  New  England  Roof-Trees." 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        325 

almost  beyond  endurance  by  the  pain  of  tlie 
wound  in  his  arm,  that  brought  him  to  himself. 
He  then  solemnly  vowed  to  amend  his  life  and 
atone  to  Agnes,  if  God  in  his  mercy  should  see 
fit  to  deliver  him,  and  he  wasted  not  a  moment, 
after  his  rescue,  in  executing  his  pledge  to 
Heaven.  His  spirit  had  been  effectually  chas- 
tened, as  the  Journal  shows.  For  he  there 
writes  down  "  Hope  my  providential  escape 
will  have  a  lasting  good  effect  upon  my  mind.,, 
The  summer  of  1756  was  passed  by  the 
knight  and  his  lady  at  Hopkinton  but  the 
following  October  Frankland  purchased  of 
Thomas  Greenough,  for  the  sum  of  twelve  hun- 
dred pounds  sterling  the  celebrated  Clarke 
mansion  on  Garden  Court  street,  Boston.  This 
is  the  house  described  in  Cooper's  Lionel  Lin- 
coln (although  there  incorrectly  said  to  stand 
on  Tremont  street)  and  it  adjoined  the  far- 
famed  Hutchinson  house  whose  splendour  it 
was  intended  to  rival.  The  site  was  all  that 
could  be  desired  and  the  house  itself  was,  for 
that  period,  very  elegant  and  commodious.  It 
was  built  of  brick,  three  stories  high,  and  con- 
tained in  all  twenty-six  rooms.  It  had  inlaid 
floors,  carved  mantels  and  stairs  so  broad  and 
low  that  Sir  Harry  could  and  did  ride  his  pony 
up  and  down  them  with  safety.     This  amuse- 


326  St.  Botolph's  Town 

ment  was  probably  a  feature  of  those  stag- 
parties  held  during  his  wife's  absence  in  Hop- 
kinton,  in  the  course  of  which  Frankland  used 
his  famous  wine-glass  of  double  thickness,  a 
possession  which  enabled  hirn  to  keep  sober 
long  after  all  his  guests  were  under  the  table. 

The  kind  of  congratulatory  letters  received 
now  by  Sir  Harry  and  his  Agnes  may  be 
guessed  from  the  following,  for  the  use  of 
which  I  am  indebted  to  Mrs.  S.  H.  Swan  of 
Cambridge.  The  writer  of  this  letter  was  Ed- 
mund Quincy,  father  of  Hancock's  Dorothy, 
who  lived  from  1740  - 1752  on  the  south  side  of 
Summer  street,  Boston,  —  in  which  house  his 
famous  daughter  was  born  May  10,  1747. 


"  Braintree,  Nov.  30,  1756. 
"  To  Sir  H.  Frankland: 

"As  ye  unhap.  situation  of  my  affairs  [he 
had  been  unfortunate  in  business]  has  dep'd 
me  of  ye  satisfaction  of  long  since  waiting 
upon  yourself  and  lady  &  personally  congrat- 
ulating your  safe  &  happy  return  into  this 
prov.  after  so  remarkable  a  protection  wh  ye 
G't  Author  &  preserver  of  all  things  was 
pleas 'd  to  afford  you  at  Lisbon,  on  ye  never  to 
be  forgotten  10th  of  Nov.  last,  I  hope  yr  good- 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        327 

ness  will  excuse  an  epistolary  tender  of  my  sin- 
cerest  complements  on  ye  pleasing  occasion. 

"I'm  agreeably  informed  that  you  have  pur- 
chased ye  mansion  of  ye  late  Mr.  Clarke,  & 
I  hope  with  a  view  to  settlement  for  life  in  ye 
town  of  Boston,  whose  very  declining  state  ren- 
ders ye  favor  you  may  have  done  that  town  in 
ye  choice  ye  more  distinguished.  As  testimony 
of  my  respect  &  gratitude  I  have  taken  ye  free- 
dom to  send  you,  a  trifling  collection  of  some 
of  ye  fruits  of  ye  season  produced  on  the  place 
of  my  birth,  on  which  (tho'  mine  no  more!) 
I  have  yet  a  residence.  It  asks  yr.  candid  ac- 
ceptance, if  more  &  better  I  sh'd  be  ye  more 
pleased.  Tel  qu'il  est,  permit  me  ye  pleasure 
of  assuring  you  that  it  is  accompanied  by  the 
sincerest  regard  of,  Sir.  Yr.  most  obedient  & 
very  humble  S't  e.  q. 


j  ' 


As  Lady  Frankland  Agnes  was  cordially  re- 
ceived by  those  who  had  formerly  looked  coldly 
upon  her,  and  the  spacious  parlours,  with  their 
fluted  columns,  elaborately  carved,  their  richly 
gilded  pilasters  and  cornices,  their  wainscoted 
walls  and  panels,  embellished  with  beautiful 
landscape  scenery,  were  the  background  for 
many  an  elegant  tea-party  and  reception.  The 
Inmans,  the  Rowes,  the  Greenoughs  and  the 


328  St.  Botolph's  Town 

Sheafes  were  constantly  entertained  at  supper 
and  dinner  here,  and  Dr.  Timothy  Cutler,  first 
rector  of  Christ  Church  (built  in  1723  when  the 
Episcopalians  of  the  town  became  too  numer- 
ous to  be  accommodated  in  King's  Chapel)  was 
a  frequent  and  an  honoured  guest.  Very  likely 
the  good  old  man  many  a  time  talked  over  with 
Lady  Frankland  in  a  quiet  corner  of  her  own 
sitting-room  the  best  ways  of  launching  in  life 
the  children  of  her  sister  Mary,  whose  guar- 
dian she  had  become.  All  in  all  it  was  a  good 
and  gracious  life  that  the  humbly-born  Marble- 
head  girl  led  in  her  noble  mansion-house  on 
Garden  Court  street. 

Warm  weather,  of  course,  found  the  family 
often  at  Hopkinton.  Once  they  had  a  narrow 
escape  from  a  tragic  end  while  making  the 
journey  from  their  country  to  their  town  house. 
The  account  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  New 
Hampshire  Gazette  of  September  2,  1757: 
"  Boston  August  20,  1757.  Thursday  last  as 
Sir  Henry  Frankland  and  his  lady  were  coming 
into  town  in  their  chariot,  a  number  of  boys 
were  gunning  on  Boston  neck  —  notwithstand- 
ing there  is  an  express  law  to  the  contrary,  — 
when  one  of  them  discharging  his  piece  at  a 
bird  missed  the  same,  and  almost  the  whole 
charge  of  shot  came  into  the  chariot  where  Sir 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        329 

Henry  and  his  lady  were,  several  of  which  en- 
tered his  hat  and  clothes,  and  one  grazed  his 
face  but  did  no  other  damage  to  him  or  lady." 

Frankland's  health,  however,  was  not  rugged 
and  in  July,  1757,  he  sought  and  obtained  the 
post  of  consul-general  to  Lisbon,  a  place  for 
which  he  was  well  fitted  by  reason  of  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  language  and  customs  of  the  coun- 
try. The  entries  in  the  Journal  concerning 
the  articles  which  he  determined  to  purchase 
in  London  "  for  Lisbon  "  are  interesting: 
"  silver  castors;  wine  glasses  like  Pownal's; 
two  turreens;  saucers  for  water  glasses,  des- 
sert knives  and  forks  and  spoons ;  common  tea- 
kettle; jelly  and  syllabub  glasses;  fire-grate; 
long  dishes ;  tea  cups  etc.,  clothes  etc.,  for  Lady 
Frankland.  Consul's  seal;  combs;  mahogany 
tray,  press  for  table-linen  and  sheets;  stove 
for  flatirons ;  glass  for  live  flea  for  microscope ; 
Hoyle's  Treatise  on  Whist;  Dr.  Doddridge's 
Exposition  on  the  New  Testament,  16  hand- 
some chairs  with  two  settees  and  2  card  tables, 
working  table  like  Mrs.  F.  F.  Gardner's." 

Our  hero,  it  will  be  observed,  has  now  be- 
come a  thorough-going  family  man.  It  is 
greatly  to  be  regretted  that  his  Journal  no 
longer  deals  with  Boston  and  its  affairs,  for 
he  seems  in  a  fair  way  to  become  as  gossipy 


330  St.  Botolph's  Town 

as  the  delicious  Sewall.  Once  he  puts  down 
the  weight  of  all  the  ladies  taking  part  in  a 
certain  pleasure  excursion,  —  we  thus  know 
that  Lady  Frankland  weighed  135  pounds  at 
the  age  of  thirty-six,  —  and  again  he  tells  us 
that  linseed  oil  is  excellent  to  preserve  knives 
from  rust ! 

The  year  1763  found  the  pair  back  once  more 
for  a  brief  visit  in  Boston  and  Hopkinton.  But 
Frankland  could  not  stand  our  east  winds  and 
so  the  following  winter  he  returned  again  to 
the  old  country,  settling  down  at  Bath  to  the 
business  of  drinking  the  waters.  In  the  Jour- 
nal he  writes:  "I  endeavor  to  keep  myself 
calm  and  sedate.  I  live  modestly  and  avoid 
ostentation,  decently  and  not  above  my  condi- 
tion, and  do  not  entertain  a  number  of  para- 
sites who  forget  favors  the  moment  they  de- 
part from  my  table.  ...  I  cannot  suffer  a  man 
of  low  condition  to  exceed  me  in  good  man- 
ners." A  little  later  we  read  that  he  is  now 
bed-ridden.  He  died  at  Bath,  January  2,  1768, 
at  the  age  of  fifty- two  and  was,  at  his  own  re- 
quest, buried  in  the  parish  churchyard  there. 

Agnes  almost  immediately  came  back  to  Bos- 
ton and,  with  her  sister  and  sister's  children, 
took  up  her  residence  at  Hopkinton.  There 
she    remained,   living   a   peaceful   happy   life 


A  Genuine  Colonial  Romance        331 

among  her  flowers,  her  friends  and  her  books 
until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  when  it 
seemed  to  her  wise  to  go  in  to  her  town  house. 
The  following  entry  relative  to  this  is  found 
in  the  records  of  the  committee  of  safety: 
"  May  15,  1775.  Upon  application  of  Lady 
Frankland,  voted  that  she  have  liberty  to  pass 
into  Boston  with  the  following  goods  and  ar- 
ticles for  her  voyage,  viz.  6  trunks:  1  chest: 
3  beds  and  bedding :  6  wethers :  2  pigs :  1  small 
keg  of  pickled  tongues:  some  hay:  3  bags  of 
corn:  and  such  other  goods  as  she  thinks 
proper." 

So,  defended  by  a  guard  of  six  soldiers,  the 
beautiful  widow  entered  the  besieged  city  about 
the  first  of  June  and  thus  was  able  to  view 
from  the  windows  of  her  mansion  the  imposing 
spectacle  of  Bunker  Hill.  With  her  own  hands, 
too,  she  assuaged  the  sufferings  of  the  British 
wounded  on  that  occasion.  For,  of  course,  she 
was  an  ardent  Tory.  Then,  too,  General  Bur- 
goyne  had  been  among  her  intimates  in  the 
happy  Lisbon  days. 

Rather  oddly,  neither  of  Lady  Frankland 's 
estates  were  confiscated,  but  she  herself  found 
it  convenient  soon  to  sail  for  England,  where 
she  lived  on  the  estate  of  the  Frankland  fam- 
ily until,  in  1782,  she  married  Mr.  John  Drew, 


332  St.  Botolph's  Town 

a  rich  banker  of  Chichester.  And  in  Chiches- 
ter she  died  in  one  year's  time.  It  is  greatly 
to  be  regretted  that  no  portrait  of  her  is  ob- 
tainable, for  she  must  have  been  very  lovely, 
—  and  she  certainly  stands  without  a  rival  as 
a  heroine  of  Boston  romance. 


XV 

THE    DAWN    OF    ACTIVE    RESISTANCE 

No  institution  in  the  life  of  early  Boston 
played  a  more  important  part  in  promoting  the 
break  with  the  mother-country  than  the  tav- 
ern.1 The  attitude  of  a  man  towards  England 
soon  came  to  be  known  by  the  public  house 
where  he  spent  his  evenings,  and  from  the  time 
of  the  establishment  of  the  Eoyal  Exchange 
(1711),  which  stood  on  the  southwest  corner 
of  Exchange  and  State  street,  a  line  of  cleav- 
age between  kingsmen  and  others  was  faintly 
to  be  discerned.  When  Luke  Vardy  became 
landlord  here  the  place  took  on  the  colour 
which  has  made  it  famous.  It  was  then  the 
resort  of  all  the  young  bloods  of  the  town,  who, 
brave  in  velvet  and  ruffles,  in  powdered  hair 
and  periwigs,  swore  by  the  king  and  drank  deep 
draughts  of  life  and  liquor.  This  tavern  was 
distinctly  the  resort  of  the  British  officers  and 
many   an  international   romance   is   connected 

1  For  further  data  on  this  subject  see  "  Old  New  England  Inns." 
333 


334  St.  Botolph's  Town 

with  the  house,  —  notably  that  of  Susanna 
Sheafe  (eldest  daughter  of  the  Deputy),  and 
the  dashing  Captain  Ponsonby  Molesworth, 
whom  the  maiden  saw  marching  by  with  his 
soldiers  as  she  stood  in  the  balcony  of  the  inn. 
Molesworth  was  immediately  captivated  by  her 
beauty  and  pointing  her  out  to  a  brother  of- 
ficer exclaimed,  ' '  Jove !  that  girl  seals  my 
fate !  ' '  She  did,  very  soon  after,  a  clergyman 
assisting. 

The  Bunch  of  Grapes,  too,  though  later  as- 
sociated with  many  a  Eevolutionary  feast,  was, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a 
favourite  resort  of  the  royal  representatives. 
It  stood  on  what  is  now  the  west  corner  of 
Kilby  street,  on  State  street,  and  hither  Gov- 
ernor William  Burnet  was  enthusiastically  es- 
corted by  a  large  body  of  citizens  upon  his 
arrival  in  1728.  Governor  Pownall,  too,  fre- 
quented the  house,  and  there  is  a  pleasant 
story  of  a  kiss  which  he  once  delivered,  stand- 
ing on  a  chair  there.  Pownall  was  a  short, 
corpulent  person  but  a  great  ladies'  man,  and 
it  was  his  habit  to  salute  every  woman  to  whom 
he  was  introduced  with  a  sounding  smack  upon 
the  cheek.  One  day  a  tall  dame  was  presented 
and  he  requested  her  to  stoop  to  meet  his  prof- 
fered courtesy.    "  Nay,  I'll  stoop  to  no  man, 


GOVERNOR    I'OWNALL 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      335 

—  not  even  to  your  Excellency, ' '  exclaimed  the 
lady,  with  a  haughty  toss  of  her  head.  "  Then 
I'll  stoop  to  you,  madam,"  readily  retorted  the 
gallant  governor,  and  springing  to  a  chair  be- 
side her  he  bent  over  to  do  his  obeisance. 

Ere  long,  however,  there  came  a  time  when 
a  scarlet  coat  was  an  inflammatory  signal  in 
the  tap-room  of  this  inn.  Pownall  was  rather 
less  to  blame  for  this,  though,  than  any  of  the 
governors  who  had  preceded  him.  Our  gallant 
hero  had  been  in  Boston  twice  before,  in  the  em- 
ploy of  Shirley,  before  he  came  to  the  town  as 
governor  (August  3, 1757),  and  he  really  had  an 
intelligent  idea  of  the  underlying  causes  of  the 
then  smouldering  American  resentment.  To  be 
sure,  he  stood  calmly  and  firmly  for  the  pre- 
rogative of  the  king;  but  he  appears  to  have 
divined  tendencies,  already  at  work,  towards 
throwing  off  the  yoke  of  royalty.  At  his  own 
request,  he  was  recalled,  after  a  short  term 
of  service,  and  it  so  happened  that  from  1768- 
1780  he  was  a  member  of  Parliament.  Thus 
he  was  able  to  use,  in  our  behalf,  the  experi- 
ence he  had  gained  while  here.  But  his  advice 
and  protests  were  not  regarded  in  England 
and  he  lived  to  see  us  take  a  place  among  the 
nations  in  fulfilment  of  his  own  prophecies. 

After  Pownall  had  sailed  back  to  England 


336  St.  Botolph's  Town 

(June  3,  1760)  Thomas  Hutchinson,  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor, had  a  chance  to  try  his  hand 
at  the  helm.  To  relieve  him  there  soon  came 
Sir  Francis  Bernard,  who  seems  to  have  been, 
personally,  a  very  delightful  gentleman,  but 
who,  as  the  king's  representative,  had  a  most 
unhappy  time  of  it  while  in  Boston.  Before 
his  appointment  to  Massachusetts  Bernard  had 
been  the  successful  administrator  of  affairs  in 
New  Jersey  and  he  had  high  hopes,  therefore, 
of  getting  on  well  with  the  Puritans.  Writing 
to  Lord  Barrington  of  the  matter  he  said,  ' '  As 
for  the  people,  I  am  assured  that  I  may  depend 
upon  a  quiet  and  easy  administration.  I  shall 
have  no  points  of  government  to  dispute  about, 
no  schemes  of  self-interest  to  pursue.  The 
people  are  well  disposed  to  live  upon  good 
terms  with  the  Governor  and  with  one  another ; 
and  I  hope  I  may  not  want  to  be  directed  by 
a  junto  or  supported  by  a  party;  and  that  I 
shall  find  there,  as  I  have  done  here,  that  plain- 
dealing,  integrity  and  disinterestedness  make 
the  best  system  of  policy." 

This  optimistic  vision  was  destined  speedily 
to  be  dispelled  by  the  facts.  Though  he  was 
met,  near  Dedham,  on  his  journey  from  New 
Jersey,  by  a  number  of  gentlemen  in  "  coaches 
and  chariots,"  the  new  governor  had  hardly 


SIR    FRANCIS    BKRN'AKD 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      337 

reached  the  seat  of  his  province  when  things 
began  to  look  blue  for  him.  In  his  first  speech 
to  the  Assembly  (which  came  immediately 
after  the  fall  of  Montreal),  he  maladroitly  put 
his  hearers  in  mind  of  the  blessings  they  de- 
rived from  their  "  subjection  to  Great  Britain, 
without  which  they  could  not  now  have  been 
a  free  people;  for  no  other  power  on  earth 
could  have  delivered  them  from  the  power  they 
had  to  contend  with."  Hutchinson,  in  his  nar- 
rative of  this  and  succeeding  events  relates 
that  "  the  Council,  in  their  address,  acknowl- 
edge that  to  their  relation  to  Great  Britain 
they  owe  their  present  freedom.  .  .  .  The 
House,  without  scrupling  to  make  in  express 
words  the  acknowledgement  of  their  subjec- 
tion, nevertheless  explain  the  nature  of  it. 
They  are  '  sensible  of  the  blessings  derived  to 
the  British  Colonies  from  their  subjection  to 
Great  Britain;  and  the  whole  world  must  be 
sensible  of  the  blessings  derived  to  Great  Brit- 
ain from  the  loyalty  of  the  Colonies  in  gen- 
eral, and  for  the  efforts  of  this  province  in 
particular;  which,  for  more  than  a  century 
past,  has  been  wading  in  blood  and  laden  with 
the  expenses  of  repelling  the  common  enemy; 
without  which  effort  Great  Britain,  at  this  day, 
might  have  had  no  Colonies  to  defend.'  " 


338  St.  Botolph's  Town 

The  truth  was  that  gratitude  to  Great  Brit- 
ain was  an  emotion  very  remote,  just  then, 
from  the  mind  of  Boston.  For  two  enactments 
of  long  standing,  —  but  which,  from  disuse, 
had  not  hitherto  been  oppressive,  —  were  now 
being  very  unpleasantly  brought  home  to  the 
people.  The  Navigation  Act  of  Charles  II  and 
the  Sugar  Act  of  1733  had  been  far  from  ac- 
ceptable to  the  New  Englanders,  but  so  long 
as  there  seemed  slight  disposition  to  enforce 
these  statutes  nobody  minded  them  much. 
Then  Pitt  fell,  and  there  came  into  power  new 
men  who  were  only  creatures  of  the  young 
king  (George  III),  —  and  an  era  of  experimen- 
tation, so  far  as  the  colonies  was  concerned, 
was  immediately  inaugurated. 

Governor  Bernard  was  especially  instructed 
to  see  that  the  decrees  of  the  English  Board  of 
Trade  in  regard  to  the  collection  of  duties  and 
the  restriction  of  commerce  were  enforced.  He 
therefore  ranged  himself  with  Hutchinson  and 
Charles  Paxton  when  there  came  a  question 
of  assisting  customs  officers  in  the  execution 
of  their  duty.  Hutchinson,  as  it  happened,  was 
Chief-justice  of  the  superior  court  as  well  as 
lieutenant-governor,  and  it  was,  therefore, 
within  his  power  to  issue  what  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Writs  of  Assistance,  permits  by 


JAMES   OTIS 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      339 

means  of  which  officers  could  forcibly  enter 
dwelling-houses,  stores  and  warehouses  in 
search  of  goods  which  they  believed,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  to  be  smuggled.  Charles  Paxton, 
head  of  the  Boston  Custom  House,  who  insti- 
gated the  granting  of  these  writs,  was  hung  in 
effigy  from  the  Boston  Liberty  Tree  as  a  sign 
of  the  hatred  his  act  inspired  in  the  people. 
James  Otis,  on  the  other  hand,  a  part  of  whose 
duty  as  advocate-general  it  would  have  been 
to  support  the  cause  of  the  customs  officers, 
resigned  his  position  under  the  Crown  and  en- 
gaged himself  to  argue,  for  the  suffering  mer- 
chants of  Boston,  against  the  legality  of  the 
writs! 

Thus  there  stepped  upon  the  stage  of  the 
world's  history,  for  the  first  time,  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  men  America  has  ever  produced. 
The  scene  of  the  now-famous  trial,  in  which 
Otis  played  so  important  a  part,  was  the  coun- 
cil-chamber of  the  Old  Boston  Town  House, 
an  imposing  and  elegant  apartment  at  the  east 
end  of  the  building,  ornamented  with  fine  full- 
length  portraits  of  Charles  II  and  James  II. 
Hutchinson  presided  and  there  were  also  in 
attendance  four  associate  judges,  wearing 
great  wigs  on  their  heads  and  rich  scarlet 
robes  upon  their  backs.    Thronging  the  court- 


340  St.  Botolph's  Town 

room  were  the  chief  citizens  and  officers  of  the 
Crown,  all  of  whom  well  understood  that  a  mat- 
ter of  enormous  importance  was  to  be  debated. 
Among  the  young  lawyers  who  were  present 
on  that  important  day  was  John  Adams,  a 
fresh-faced  youth  who  had  come  up  from  his 
home  in  Braintree  to  hear  what  should  be  said. 
In  his  old  age  he  wrote  to  William  Tudor  a 
description  of  the  scene,  which  brings  vividly 
before  us  the  actors  and  the  parts  they  took: 
"  Round  a  great  fire  were  seated  five  judges, 
with  Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson  at  their 
head  as  Chief-Justice,  all  arrayed  in  their  new 
fresh  rich  robes  of  scarlet  English  broadcloth; 
in  their  large  cambric  bands  and  immense  judi- 
cial wigs.  At  a  long  table  were  all  the  barris- 
ters-at-law  of  Boston  and  of  the  neighboring 
county  of  Middlesex,  in  gowns,  bands  and  tie- 
wigs.  They  were  not  seated  on  ivory  chairs, 
but  their  dress  was  more  solemn  and  more 
pompous  than  that  of  the  Roman  senate,  when 
the  Gauls  broke  in  upon  them.  Two  portraits 
of  more  than  full  length  of  King  Charles  the 
Second  and  of  King  James  the  Second,  in 
splendid  golden  frames  were  hung  up  on  the 
most  conspicuous  sides  of  the  apartment.  If 
my  young  eyes  or  old  memory  have  not  de- 
ceived me,  these  were  as  fine  pictures  as  I  ever 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      341 

saw;  .  .  .  they  had  been  sent  over  without 
frames  in  Governor  PownalPs  time,  but  he  was 
no  admirer  of  Charles  or  James.  The  pictures 
were  stowed  away  in  a  garret  among  rubbish 
until  Governor  Bernard  came,  who  had  them 
cleaned,  superbly  framed  and  placed  in  council 
for  the  admiration  and  imitation  of  all  men, 
no  doubt  with  the  advice  and  concurrence  of 
Hutchinson  and  all  his  nebula  of  stars  and  sat- 
ellites." 

The  case  was  opened  by  Jeremiah  Gridley, 
the  king's  attorney,  who  defended  the  validity 
of  the  writs  on  statute  law  and  English  prac- 
tice. To  which  Oxenbridge  Thacher  replied  in 
a  strong  legal  argument  which  showed  that  the 
rule  in  English  courts  did  not  apply  to  Amer- 
ica. Then  the  Advocate  of  Freedom  began  to 
speak,  confounding  all  his  opponents  by  the 
splendour  of  his  eloquence. 

"  Otis,"  says  John  Adams,  "  was  a  flame 
of  fire.  With  a  plenitude  of  classical  allusions, 
a  depth  of  research,  a  rapid  summary  of  his- 
torical events  and  dates,  a  profusion  of  legal 
authorities,  a  prophetic  glance  of  his  eye  into 
futurity,  and  a  torrent  of  impetuous  eloquence, 
he  hurried  away  everything  before  him!  .  .  . 
Every  man  of  a  crowded  audience  appeared  to 
me  to  go  away,  as  I  did,  ready  to  take  arms 


342  St.  Botolph's  Town 

against  writs  of  assistance.  Then  and  there 
was  the  first  scene  of  the  first  act  of  opposition 
to  the  arbitrary  claims  of  Great  Britain.  Then 
and  there  the  child  Independence  was  born!  " 

For  Otis  had  made  a  passionate  appeal  on 
the  ground  of  human  rights.  He  had  said  that 
the  writs  of  assistance  were  instruments  of 
slavery  and  villainy,  and  that  he  was  standing 
there  on  behalf  of  English  liberties.  He  de- 
clared that  a  man's  house  was  his  castle  and 
that  this  writ  destroyed  the  sacred  privilege 
of  domestic  privacy.  Thus  for  four  hours  he 
poured  out  a  stream  of  eloquence  which,  if  it 
did  not  avail  to  convince  the  Court  (who  ulti- 
mately sustained  the  legality  of  the  writs), 
served  admirably  to  bring  home  to  the  Boston 
people  the  rank  iniquity  of  taxation  without 
representation.    The  fight  was  on ! 

Governor  Bernard  did  not  appreciate  this 
fact,  though,  and  when  he  opened  the  legisla- 
ture, the  following  autumn,  was  once  more  sin- 
gularly unhappy  in  his  choice  of  speech-making 
material.  For  he  now  recommended  the  mem- 
bers to  "  give  no  attention  to  declamations 
tending  to  promote  a  suspicion  that  the  civil 
rights  of  the  people  were  in  danger."  Otis  had 
just  been  elected  a  member  of  the  body,  and 
it  was,  of  course,  recognized  that  these  words 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      343 

were  aimed  at  him.  The  representatives  re- 
plied to  them  with  scarcely  concealed  resent- 
ment. Speedily,  too,  Governor  Bernard  found 
out  that  he  would  have  to  be  very  circumspect 
in  order  to  avoid  the  adverse  criticism  of  this 
clever  lawyer  to  whom  he  had  thrown  down  the 
gauntlet. 

In  the  summer  of  1762,  during  a  recess  in 
the  sessions  of  the  legislature,  Governor  Ber- 
nard, with  the  approval  of  the  Council,  ex- 
pended a  comparatively  trifling  sum  in  fitting 
out  a  vessel  with  which  to  quiet  the  fears  of 
Boston  merchants  who  wished  protection  from 
the  French  for  their  fishing-boats  off  New- 
foundland. Instantly  opponents  of  the  admin- 
istration remonstrated  against  his  "  unwar- 
ranted outlay."  The  protest  came  through  a 
committee  of  the  legislature  of  which  Otis  was 
chairman!  In  the  remonstrance  it  was  said 
that  "  no  necessity  can  be  sufficient  to  justify 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  giving  up 
such  a  privilege ;  for  it  would  be  of  little  con- 
sequence to  the  people  whether  they  were  sub- 
ject to  George  or  Lewis,  the  king  of  Great 
Britain  or  the  French  king,  if  both  were  arbi- 
trary, as  both  would  be  if  both  could  levy  taxes 
without  a  parliament."  When  this  passage 
was    read    out,    a    member    cried    "  Treason! 


344  St.  Botolph's  Town 

treason!  "  in  much  the  same  way  that  it  was 
cried  against  Patrick  Henry,  three  years  later. 
Yet  it  was  only  with  considerable  difficulty  that 
the  governor  prevailed  upon  the  House  to  ex- 
punge the  passage  in  which  the  king's  name 
had  been  so  disloyally  introduced.  Poor  Fran- 
cis Bernard!  Well  must  he  have  understood, 
by  this  time,  that  Massachusetts  was  to  give 
him  anything  but  "  a  quiet  and  easy  admin- 
istration! " 

Yet  if  his  official  path  was  not  always  smooth, 
Governor  Bernard  was  made  very  happy  in 
his  home  life  and  in  his  social  intercourse. 
He  had  three  residences,  one  in  Jamaica  Plain, 
one  at  "  Castle  William  "  and  one,  of  course, 
in  the  Province  House.  His  youngest  daugh- 
ter, Julia,  who  was  a  baby  when  the  family 
moved  from  New  Jersey  to  Massachusetts, 
afterwards  wrote  down,  for  the  information  of 
her  descendants,  her  recollections  of  Boston  in 
her  girlhood  and  the  resulting  manuscript  is 
freely  quoted  in  "  The  Bernards  of  Abington 
and  Nether  Winchendon  "  by  Mrs.  Napier 
Higgins.  From  that  delightful  work  I  repro- 
duce by  permission:  "  During  the  hot  months 
we  resided  at  the  beautiful  spot,  Castle  Will- 
iam [Castle  Island],  a  high  hill  rising  out 
of  the  sea  in  the  harbor  of  Boston,  where  a 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      345 

residence  was  always  ready  for  the  Governor, 
a  twelve-oared  barge  always  at  call  to  convey 
him  backwards  and  forwards.  .  .  . 

"  My  first  recollections  were  of  the  large 
Government  House,  with  a  great  number  of 
servants,  some  black  slaves  and  some  white 
free  servants;  a  peculiar  state  of  intercourse 
with  the  inhabitants,  everybody  coming  to  us 
and  we  going  to  nobody,  a  public  day  once  a 
week,  a  dinner  for  gentlemen,  and  a  drawing- 
room  in  the  afternoon  when  all  persons  of 
either  sex  who  wished  to  pay  their  respects 
were  introduced,  various  refreshments  handed 
about,  and  some  cards,  I  can  remember.  We 
had  a  man  cook,  a  black,  who  afterwards  came 
to  England  with  us.  My  Father  had  a  country 
house  also  a  few  miles  from  Boston.  .  .  . 

"  The  cold  in  winter  was  intense,  but  calm 
and  certain ;  it  set  in  early  in  November,  and 
continued  —  a  hard  frost,  the  ground  covered 
with  snow  —  till  perhaps  the  end  of  March, 
when  a  rapid  spring  brought  in  a  very  hot  sum- 
mer. During  the  winter  all  carriages  were 
taken  off  the  wheels  and  put  upon  runners, 
that  is  —  sledges ;  and  this  is  the  time  they 
choose  of  all  others  for  long  journeys  and  ex- 
cursions of  pleasure.  It  was  a  common  thing 
to  say  to  a  friend:   '  Yours  are  bad  roads;   I'll 


346  St.  Botolph's  Town 

come  and  see  you  as  soon  as  the  snow  and  frost 
set  in.'  The  travelling  is  then  done  with  a 
rapidity  and  stillness  which  makes  it  necessary 
for  the  horses  to  have  bells  on  their  heads; 
and  the  music,  cheerfulness  and  bustle  of  a 
bright  winter's  day  were  truly  amusing  and 
interesting.  Open  sledges,  with  perhaps  twenty 
persons,  all  gay  and  merry,  going  about  the 
country  on  parties  of  pleasure,  rendered  the 
winter  a  more  animated  scene  than  the  hot 
summers  present." 

Concerning  the  house  at  Jamaica  Plain  Miss 
Bernard  wrote  that  it  was  built  chiefly  by  her 
father  himself  and  that  "  there  was  a  consid- 
erable range  of  ground,  and  a  small  lake  [of] 
about  one  hundred  acres  attached  to  it  with  a 
boat  on  it.  .  .  .  This  was  called  Jamaica  Pond. 
To  this  residence  we  generally  moved  in  May, 
I  think,  and  here  we  enjoyed  ourselves  ex- 
tremely. My  Father  was  always  on  the  wing 
on  account  of  his  situation.  He  had  his  own 
carriage  and  servants,  my  mother  hers;  there 
was  a  town  coach  and  a  whiskey  for  the  young 
men  to  drive  about." 

Governor  Bernard's  personal  appearance  is 
thus  described  by  his  daughter :  ' '  My  Father, 
though  not  tall,  had  something  dignified  and 
distinguished  in  his  manner;    he  dressed  su- 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      347 

perbly  on  all  public  occasions."  Of  her  mother 
she  adds  that  she  was  tall  and  that  "  her 
dresses  were  ornamented  with  gold  and  silver, 
ermine  and  fine  American  sable."  Miss  Ber- 
nard tells  us  also  that  her  father  was  musical 
and  sometimes  wrote  both  tune  and  words  for 
a  song  he  and  his  friends  would  after  enjoy 
together.  His  was  the  age  of  toasts  and  it  is 
interesting  to  know  that  the  bitterly-hated 
royal  governor  originated  the  following  amia- 
ble sentiment: 

"  Here's  a  health  to  all  those  that  we  love, 
Here's  a  health  to  all  those  that  love  us  ; 
Here's  a  health  to  all  those  that  love  them  that  love  those 
That  love  them  that  love  those  that  love  us." 

Events  in  the  mother  country  were  now  ta- 
king place,  however,  which  were  bound  to  make 
Massachusetts  people  hate  the  royal  governor, 
no  matter  how  engaging  that  functionary  might 
be  in  his  private  capacity.  Charles  Townshend 
had  been  made  first  Lord  of  Trade  in  England 
and  secretary  of  the  colonies.  He  proposed  to 
grasp  and  execute  absolute  power  of  taxation. 
Whereupon  George  Grenville  came  to  the  front 
and  planned  a  colonial  stamp  act  designed  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  the  British  army!  Nat- 
urally the  colonists  protested.    Yet  it  was  not 


348  St.  Botolph's  Town 

so  much,  now  or  at  any  time,  unwillingness  to 
pay  their  part  of  England's  current  expenses 
as  unwillingness  to  help  support  a  government 
in  which  they  were  not  represented  that  we 
should  see  in  ensuing  events.  "  It  was  not  the 
taxation  of  the  Stamp  Act  that  alarmed  them, 
but  the  principle  involved  in  it. ' ' 

In  this  "  strike  "  of  the  Bostonians  as  in 
many  a  strike  since  there  were  —  unfortu- 
nately —  outbreaks  of  mob  violence  as  well  as 
calm  and  effective  opposition.  And  the  very 
men  who  condemned  unlawful  measures  were 
credited,  just  as  they  often  are  to-day  in  sim- 
ilar circumstances,  with  "  standing  for  "  the 
particular  measure  involved.  Hutchinson  fa- 
voured neither  the  Stamp  Act  nor  the  Sugar 
Act.  He  believed  that  the  government,  whose 
loyal  servant  he  tried  faithfully  to  be,  was 
making  a  great  mistake  in  instituting  such 
measures  in  the  colonies.  But  he  regarded  with 
the  utmost  horror  what  he  saw  to  be  a  growing 
tendency  towards  revolt  from  the  mother- 
country.  His  whole  attitude  in  this  matter  is 
expressed  in  a  quotation  which  he  selected  as 
the  title-page  motto  of  his  "  History  of  the 
Eevolt  of  the  Colonies :  "I  have  nourished 
children  and  brought  them  up  and  even  they 
have  revolted  from  me  "  (Isaiah).     In  other 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      349 

words  lie  was  a  Loyalist  in  every  drop  of  his 
blood. 

Nobody,  however,  except  Samuel  Adams, 
looked  with  favour  upon  revolt  at  this  stage 
of  the  game.  What  Otis  and  Franklin  desired 
was  Parliamentary  representation  for  the  colo- 
nies. But  the  redoubtable  Adams  had  for 
twenty  years  been  thinking  along  revolutionary 
lines.  When  he  was  graduated  from  Harvard 
he  had  taken  for  the  subject  of  his  master's 
thesis  the  question,  "  "Whether  it  Be  lawful  to 
Resist  the  Supreme  Magistrate,  if  the  Com- 
monwealth Cannot  Otherwise  Be  Preserved?  " 
and  from  this  beginning  he  had  followed  a 
methodical  scheme  of  advance  in  pursuance  of 
which  such  men  as  Otis,  John  Adams,  Dr.  Jo- 
seph Warren  and  John  Hancock  were  enlisted 
as  his  co-workers. 

Hutchinson  had  had  the  misfortune  to  re- 
ceive an  office  which  James  Otis  had  wished 
given  to  his  father  and  he  never  recovered 
from  the  idea  that  all  the  Otis  opposition  was 
based  upon  personal  resentment.  Otis,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  firmly  persuaded  that  Hutch- 
inson was  a  rapacious  seeker  of  power  and  so 
failed,  on  his  part,  to  do  justice  to  a  strong 
and  commanding  personality  glad  of  much 
work  to  do  because  conscious  of  ability  to  do 


350  St.  Botolph's  Town 

it.  That  the  brilliant  young  orator  had  a  great 
principle  on  his  side  when  he  asserted,  again 
and  again,  that  judicial  and  executive  power 
should  not  be  invested  in  the  same  person  we 
of  to-day  clearly  recognize.  But  Montesquieu's 
doctrines  are  now  well-established  where  he 
was  then  an  author  known  in  America  only  to 
Otis  and  a  few  choice  others.  So,  though 
Hutchinson  was  conscious  of  no  offence  in  ful- 
filling at  one  and  the  same  time  the  functions 
of  lieutenant-governor,  president  of  the  Coun- 
cil, chief  justice  and  judge  of  probate,  Otis 
could  and  did  make  capital  out  of  his  Pooh- 
Bah-like  personality.  The  result  was  that  poor 
Hutchinson,  as  we  shall  see,  had  to  pay  very 
dearly  for  his  honours. 

The  hated  Stamp  Act  received  the  king's 
sanction  March  22,  1765,  and  the  news  of  it 
arrived  in  Boston  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  the 
following  May.  The  act  was  not  to  be  opera- 
tive until  the  following  November,  however,  so 
the  people  had  five  months  in  which  to  resent 
its  enaction  and  plan  their  modes  of  resistance. 
The  office  of  distributor  of  stamps  was  accepted 
by  Andrew  Oliver;  he  was  promptly  hung  in 
effigy  from  the  branches  of  the  Liberty  Tree. 
Later,  on  that  memorable  fourteenth  of  Au- 
gust, the  effigy  was  burned  in  view  of  Mr.  Oli- 


THE    OLD    STATIC    HOUSE 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      351 

ver's  residence  and  he  himself  was  set  upon  by 
the  crowd.  The  next  day  he  resigned.  It 
began  to  be  seen  that  there  would  be  no  great 
demand  for  the  stamps.  Yet  business  could 
not  go  legally  on  without  them.  Vessels  could 
not  enter  or  go  out  of  a  harbour  without 
stamped  papers,  colleges  could  not  grant  their 
degrees,  marriages  could  not  be  made  legal, 
and  newspapers  and  almanacs  would  require 
this  "  mark  of  slavery  "  ere  they  could  cir- 
culate undisturbed. 

While  feeling  was  at  fever  heat  a  sermon 
preached  against  violence  was  interpreted  by 
a  half-drunken  mob,  who  seem  to  have  heard 
only  rumours  of  it,  as  urging  people  forcibly 
to  resent  the  Stamp  Act.  And  then  there  fol- 
lowed what  is,  without  exception,  the  most  dis- 
graceful scene  in  Boston's  history,  the  out- 
rageous pillaging  of  an  official's  house  by  a 
mob  frenzied  with  liquor.  The  story  as  told 
by  the  victim  in  his  Autobiography  is  not  a 
bit  too  prejudiced  to  be  reproduced  as  narra- 
tive here : 

"  To  Richard  Jackson 

"  Boston,  Aug.  30,  1765. 
1 '  My  dear  Sir,  —  I  came  from  my  house  at 
Milton,  the  26th  in  the  morning.    After  dinner 


352  St.  Botolph's  Town 

it  was  whispered  in  town  there  would  be  a  mob 
at  night,  and  that  Paxton,  Hallowell,  the  cus- 
tom-house, and  admiralty  officers'  houses 
would  be  attacked;  but  my  friends  assured 
me  that  the  rabble  were  satisfied  with  the  insult 
I  had  received  and  that  I  was  become  rather 
popular.  In  the  evening,  whilst  I  was  at  sup- 
per and  my  children  round  me,  somebody  ran 
in  and  said  the  mob  were  coming.  I  directed 
my  children  to  fly  to  a  secure  place  and  shut 
up  my  house  as  I  had  done  before,  intending 
not  to  quit  it ;  but  my  eldest  daughter  repented 
her  leaving  me,  hastened  back,  and  protested 
she  would  not  quit  the  house  unless  I  did.  I 
couldn't  stand  against  this  and  withdrew,  with 
her,  to  a  neighboring  house,  where  I  had  been 
but  a  few  minutes  before  the  hellish  crew  fell 
upon  my  house  with  the  rage  of  devils  and  in 
a  moment  with  axes  split  down  the  doors  and 
entered.  My  son,  being  in  the  great  entry, 
heard  them  cry:  '  Damn  him,  he  is  upstairs, 
we'll  have  him.'  Some  ran  immediately  as 
high  as  the  top  of  the  house,  others  filled  the 
rooms  below  and  cellars,  and  others  remained 
without  the  house  to  be  employed  there. 

"  Messages  soon  came,  one  after  another  to 
the  house  where  I  was,  to  inform  me  the  mob 
were   coming  in   pursuit   of   me,   and  I  was 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      353 

obliged  to  retire  through  yards  and  gardens  to 
a  house  more  remote  where  I  remained  until 
four  o'clock  by  which  time  one  of  the  best  fin- 
ished houses  in  the  Province  had  nothing  re- 
maining but  the  bare  walls  and  floors.  Not 
contented  with  tearing  off  all  the  wainscot  and 
hangings,  and  splitting  the  doors  to  pieces,  they 
beat  down  the  partition  walls ;  and  though  that 
alone  cost  them  near  two  hours  they  cut  down 
the  cupola  or  lanthorn,  and  they  began  to  take 
the  slate  and  boards  from  the  roof,  and  were 
prevented  only  by  the  approaching  daylight 
from  a  total  demolition  of  the  building.  The 
garden-house  was  laid  flat  and  all  my  trees  etc 
broke  down  to  the  ground. 

"  Such  ruin  was  never  seen  in  America.  Be- 
sides my  plate  and  family  pictures,  household 
furniture  of  every  kind,  my  own  my  children's 
and  servants'  apparel,  they  carried  off  about 
£900  in  money,  and  emptied  the  house  of  every- 
thing whatsoever,  except  a  part  of  the  kitchen 
furniture,  not  leaving  a  single  book  or  paper 
in  it,  and  have  scattered  and  destroyed  all  the 
manuscripts  and  other  papers  I  had  been  col- 
lecting for  thirty  years  together,  besides  a 
great  number  of  public  papers  in  my  custody. 

"  The  evening  being  warm  I  had  undressed 
me  and  put  on  a  thin  camlet  surtout  over  my 


354  St.  Botolph's  Town 

waistcoat.  The  next  morning,  the  weather  be- 
ing changed,  I  had  not  clothes  enough  in  my 
possession  to  defend  me  from  the  cold,  and  was 
obliged  to  borrow  from  my  friends.  Many 
articles  of  clothing  and  a  good  deal  of  my  plate 
have  since  been  picked  up  in  different  quarters 
of  the  town,  but  the  furniture  in  general  was 
cut  to  pieces  before  it  was  thrown  out  of  the 
house,  and  most  of  the  beds  cut  open  and  the 
feathers  thrown  out  of  the  windows.  The  next 
evening  I  intended  with  my  children  to  Milton, 
but  meeting  two  or  three  small  parties  of  the 
ruffians,  who  I  suppose  had  concealed  them- 
selves in  the  country,  and  my  coachman  hear- 
ing one  of  them  say,  '  There  he  is !  '  my  daugh- 
ters were  terrified  and  said  they  should  never 
be  safe,  and  I  was  forced  to  shelter  them  that 
night  at  the  Castle. 

"  The  encouragers  of  the  first  mob  never 
intended  matters  should  go  this  length,  and  the 
people  in  general  expressed  the  utmost  detes- 
tation of  this  unparalleled  outrage,  and  I  wish 
they  could  be  convinced  what  infinite  hazard 
there  is  of  the  most  terrible  consequence  from 
such  demons,  when  they  are  let  loose  in  a  gov- 
ernment where  there  is  not  constant  authority 
at  hand  sufficient  to  suppress  them.  I  am  told 
the  government  here  will  make  me  a  compen- 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      355 


sation  for  my  own  and  my  family's  loss,  which 
I  think  cannot  he  much  less  than  £3000  sterling. 
I  am  not  sure  that  they  will.  If  they  should 
not  it  will  be  too  heavy  for  me,  and  I  must 
humbly  apply  to  his  majesty  in  whose  service 
I  am  a  sufferer;  but  this  and  a  much  greater 
sum  would  be  an  insufficient  compensation  for 
the  constant  distress  and  anxiety  of  mind  I 
have  felt  for  some  time  past  and  must  feel  for 
months  to  come.  You  cannot  conceive  the 
wretched  state  we  are  in.  Such  is  the  resent- 
ment of  the  people  against  the  Stamp  Duty, 
that  there  can  be  no  dependence  upon  the  Gen- 
eral Court  to  take  any  steps  to  enforce,  or 
rather  advise  to  the  payment  of  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  such  will  be  the  effects  of  not  sub- 
mitting to  it,  that  all  trade  must  cease,  all 
courts  fall,  and  all  authority  be  at  an  end.  ..." 

The  picture  made  in  court,  the  day  following 
the  riot,  by  the  stripped  Chief  Justice  was  a 
very  pathetic  one  if  we  may  trust  the  Diary 
of  Josiah  Quincy.  The  persecuted  king's  of- 
ficer, clad  in  tattered  and  insufficient  garments, 
then  protested  in  language  which  can  leave  no 
doubt  as  to  his  sincerity,  "  I  call  my  Maker  to 
witness  that  I  never,  in  New  England  or  Old, 
in  Great  Britain  or  America,  neither  directly 


356  St.  Botolph's  Town 

nor  indirectly  was  aiding  assisting  or  support- 
ing, —  in  the  least  promoting  or  encouraging, 
—  what  is  commonly  called  the  Stamp  Act; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  did  all  in  my  power  and 
strove  as  much  as  in  me  lay  to  prevent  it." 

The  mob  violence  visited  upon  Hutchinson 
was,  of  course,  abhorred  by  Adams  and  by  the 
soberer  inhabitants  generally.  At  a  meeting 
held  in  Faneuil  Hall  a  unanimous  vote  was 
passed  calling  upon  the  selectmen  to  suppress 
such  disorders  in  the  future.  Hutchinson,  how- 
ever, states  grimly  that  many  of  the  immedi- 
ate actors  in  the  orgies  of  the  night  before  were 
present  at  this  meeting!  The  Stamp  Act  itself 
was,  of  course,  roundly  denounced  on  this  occa- 
sion, notable  as  one  of  the  first  through  which 
this  fine  old  landmark  came  to  be  identified 
with  the  cause  of  liberty.  The  original  building 
given  by  Peter  Faneuil  in  1740  to  be  a  market- 
house  and  town-hall  had  burned  in  1761,  but 
the  edifice  had  been  rebuilt  the  following  year, 
and  it  was,  therefore,  in  the  hall  substantially 
as  we  know  it  to-day  (though  the  place  was 
enlarged  in  1805),  that  Liberty  first  found  it- 
self. The  beautiful  mansion-house  of  the  hall's 
donor  stood  on  what  is  now  Tremont  street, 
opposite  the  King's  Chapel  Burial-ground. 

As  was  to  be  expected  no  stamps  were  sold 


PETER    FANEUII, S    HOUSE 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      357 

when  November  first  dawned.  The  ports  were 
closed,  vessels  could  not  sail,  business  was 
suspended.  The  news  of  all  this  naturally 
penetrated  speedily  to  England,  where  Pitt 
soon  stood  up  in  Parliament  and  declared  that 
he  "  rejoiced  that  America  had  resisted."  In 
May  accordingly  there  came  to  Boston  news  of 
the  Act's  repeal  and  every  one  was  so  glad  of 
this  tidings  that  no  attention  was  paid  to  the 
Declaratory  Act  accompanying  the  revocation, 
an  act  of  enormous  importance,  however,  in 
that  it  maintained  the  Supremacy  of  Parlia- 
ment in  all  cases  whatsoever  not  only  in  the 
matter  of  taxation  but  in  that  of  legislation  in 
general.  It  was  in  the  train  of  this  permissory 
measure  that  there  followed  the  first  steps  of 
active  revolution.  For  Samuel  Adams  had  now 
been  joined  in  the  Assembly  by  John  Hancock 
(who,  through  the  death  of  his  uncle,  had  just 
come  into  the  largest  property  in  the  Province, 
and  was  beginning  to  visit  with  particular  as- 
siduity the  daughter  of  Edmund  Quincy,  now  a 
blooming  girl  of  nineteen).  Confronting  these 
distinguished  "  patriots,"  as  they  soon  came 
to  be  called,  were  Bernard,  Hutchinson  and  the 
Olivers,  henceforward  widely  branded  by  their 
enemies  as  "  Tories." 

From  this  time  on  the  influence  of  the  chief 


358  St.  Botolph's  Town 

town  in  the  province  grows,  day  by  day,  to  be 
more  and  more  important.  In  a  speech  deliv- 
ered in  Parliament  by  Colonel  Barre,  one  of  the 
staunch  friends  of  Massachusetts,  the  Bostoni- 
ans  were  characterized  as  "  Sons  of  Liberty," 
and  this  name  was  soon  adopted  by  a  society 
comprising  about  three  hundred  active  patri- 
ots, many  of  whom  were  mechanics  and  labour- 
ing men.  The  public  gatherings  of  the  society 
were  held  in  the  open  space  around  the  Liberty 
Tree,  and  Samuel  Adams  was  the  leading  spirit 
of  all  that  went  on  there  and  in  the  private  ses- 
sions of  the  club.  Both  he  and  Otis  encouraged 
the  people  to  celebrations  on  anniversary  days 
of  significance  in  the  development  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary idea,  and  at  these  gatherings  and  the 
dinners  which  followed  them  Bernard  and  his 
colleagues  were  invariably  stigmatized  as  ca- 
lumniators of  North  America  and  now  and  then 
pronounced  worthy  of  "  strong  halters,  firm 
blocks  and  sharp  axes." 

The  people  now  saw  clearly  that  they  had 
really  gained  nothing  by  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  inasmuch  as  this  hated  measure  had 
only  given  place  to  Townshend's  Bill,  so-called, 
a  measure  levying  duty  on  glass,  paper,  paint- 
ers' colours  and  tea.  In  the  excitement  fol- 
lowing the  announcement  of  this  bill's  passage 


SAMUEL    ADAMS 


The  Dawn  of  Active  Resistance      359 

Governor  Bernard  returned  to  England  and 
the  duties  of  his  office  were  assumed  by  his 
lieutenant-governor,  Hutchinson,  —  the  great- 
great-grandson  of  that  strong-minded  woman 
whom  Massachusetts  had  cast  out  a  century 
and  a  quarter  earlier,  and  who  was  himself  des- 
tined to  be  cast  out,  also.  The  manner  of  his 
expulsion  and  the  violent  scenes  of  which  it 
was  a  part  belongs  properly  to  the  revolution- 
ary period  of  Boston's  history,  however,  rather 
than  to  this  present  volume.  We  may  well 
enough,  therefore,  close  our  book  with  an  order 
sent  by  Hutchinson  to  his  London  tailor  for 
clothes  which  he  very  likely  had  by  him  and 
often  wore  in  the  troublous  times  of  the  Mas- 
sacre and  the  Tea-Party:  "  October  6,  1769. 
To  Mr.  Peter  Leitch:  I  desire  to  have  you 
send  me  a  blue  cloth  waistcoat  trimmed  with 
the  same  colour,  lined,  the  skirts  and  facings 
with  effigeen,  and  the  body  linnen  to  match  the 
last  blue  cloath  I  had  from  you :  —  two  under 
waistcoats  or  camisols  of  warm  swansdown, 
without  sleeves,  faced  with  some  cheap  silk  or 
shagg.  A  suit  of  Cloathes  full-trimmed,  the 
cloath  something  like  the  enclosed  only  more 
of  a  gray  mixture,  gold  button  and  hole,  but 
little  wadding  lined  with  effigeen.  I  like  a 
wrought    or    flowered    or    embroidered    hole, 


360  St.  Botolph's  Town 

something,  though  not  exactly,  like  the  hole 
upon  the  cloaths  of  which  the  pattern  is  en- 
closed ;  or,  if  frogs  are  worn,  I  think  they  look 
well  on  the  coat;  but  if  it  be  quite  irregular 
I  would  have  neither  one  nor  the  other,  but 
such  a  hole  and  button  as  are  worn.  I  know 
a  laced  coat  is  more  the  mode  but  this  is  too 
gay  for  me.  A  pair  of  worsted  breeches  to 
match  the  colour,  and  a  pair  of  black  velvet 
breeches  and  breeches  with  leather  linings. 
Let  them  come  by  the  first  ship.  ..." 

Hutchinson,  though  fifty-nine,  and  the  head 
of  a  contumacious  people,  evidently  had  a  care 
to  his  personal  appearance!  In  other  words 
he  possessed  the  most  important  qualification 
of  a  royal  governor  in  the  Brocade  Age. 


THE   END. 


INDEX 


Adams,  Brooks,  165. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  61. 

Adams,  John,  340. 

Adams,  Samuel,  349,  357,  358. 

Addington,  Joshua,  190. 

Adrianople,  122. 

Albermarle,  Duke  of,  195,  196. 

Amsden,  Jacob,  271. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  178,  179, 

182,  184,  185,  187,  191,  192, 

300. 
Annesley,    Rev.   Samuel,    141, 

160,  261. 
Appleton,  William,  61. 
Austin,  Ann,  122. 

Bancroft,  George,  61. 
Barre,  Colonel,  358. 
Barrington,  Lord,  336. 
Belcher,    Jonathan,    283,   307, 

311. 
Bellingham,  Richard,  123,  265. 
Bellomont,  Earl  of,   152,  284, 

291,  292. 
Bennett,  314. 
Bernard,  Sir  Francis,   336-347, 

359. 
Blackstone,  William,  8,  9,  38, 

39,  40,  295. 
Boston  Common,  295,  314. 
Boylston,  Dr.  Zabdiel,  301. 
Bradford,  Gov.,  8,  10,  50. 
Bradstreet,    Simon,    135,    137, 

145,  175,  189,  258,  262. 
Brattle  Street  Church,  300, 301. 
Brattle,  Thomas,  300. 


Brewster,  Margaret,  125,  127, 

128. 
Brimmer,  Martin,  61. 
British  Coffee  House,  316. 
Brocker,  William,  247. 
Browne,  Kellam,  15. 
Browne,  William,  190. 
Bunch  of  Grapes  Tavern,  303, 

334. 
Buckingham,  6,  7. 
Buffum,  Joshua,  132. 
Bullivant,  Dr.,  152,  188. 
Burgess,  Col.  Elisha,  296. 
Burgoyne,  General,  331. 
Burnet,  William,  303,  305,  306, 

334. 
Burroughs,  Francis,  144. 
Byles,  Rev.  Mather,  303,  307. 
Bynner,  Edwin  L.,  45,  288. 

Cabot,  John,  2. 
Cabot,  Sebastian,  2. 
Calvin,  John,  57. 
Cambridge  Agreement,  The,  13, 

14,  15. 
Campbell.  John,  246,  247. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  41. 
Castle  Island,  344. 
Chamberlain.  Rev.  N.  H.,  265. 
Champlain,  91. 
Charles  I,  12. 
Charles  II,  85,  134.  174. 
Charlestown,  37,  52.  206. 
Cheever,  Ezekiel,  167,  168. 
Chesterfield,  Earl  of.  312. 
Chichester,  William,  124. 


361 


362 


Index 


Christ  Church,  328. 

Coddington,  117. 

Colbron,  William,  15. 

Colman,  Benjamin,  301. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  2. 

Conant,  Roger,  11. 

Cooke,  Elisha,  190. 

Copeland,  John,  136. 

Copley,  John  Singleton,  316. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  40,  41,  43, 
55,67,95,  111,  112,  113,  115, 
116,  117,  121,  134,  137,  165. 

Cotton,  Rowland,  56. 

Coventry,  257. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  12,  13. 

Cromwell,  Captain,  105. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  78,  79,  80,  81, 
82. 

Cromwell,  Richard,  82,  84,  85. 

Cutler,  Dr.  Timothy,  328. 

Danforth,  Thomas,  190. 
Dankers,  Jasper,  138. 
D'Aulnay   Charnissay,  89,  92, 

94,  95,  100,  102,  103,  104. 
Daye,  Stephen,  223. 
Defoe,  Daniel,  141. 
De  Monts,  91. 
Dennison,  Mrs.  Dorothy,  275- 

281. 
Dennison,  William,  275. 
De  Razilly,  Claude,  92. 
Dorset,  Earl  of,  58. 
Douglas,   Dr.  William,  302. 
Drew,  John,  331. 
Dudley,  Joseph,  144,  173,  175, 

177,  178,  192,  230,  232,  292, 

294,  301. 
Dudley,  Paul,  265,  267,  268. 
Dudley,   Thomas,    15,    17,   48, 

49,  56,  63,  73,  110. 
Dummer,    William,    256,    302, 

308. 
Dunster,  Elizabeth,  222. 
Dunster,  Henry,  120,  207,  222, 

223. 
"  Dunster's  Rules,"  208-213. 
Dunton,  John,  138-164. 
Dyer,  G.,  299. 


Dyer,  Mary,  128. 

Edwards,  Rev.  Jonathan,  309. 
Eliot,  Rev.  John,  161,  171. 
Ellis,  George  E.,  304. 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England, 

6. 
Endicott,  Gov.,  11,  12,  35,  72, 

99,  129,  130,  178. 
Essex,  Earl  of,  6. 
Everett,  Edward,  59,  61. 

Fairweather,  Captain,  191. 

Faneuil  Hall,  356. 

Faneuil,  Peter,  356. 

Fisher,  Mary,  122,  123,  125. 

Fort  Lomeron,  92. 

Fort  La  Tour,  92. 

Fort  Sewall,  317. 

Foster,  John,  190. 

Fountain  Inn,  316. 

Fox,  George,  136,  137. 

Frankland,  Sir  Charles  Harry, 

311-333. 
Frankland,    Sir  Thomas,   312, 

319. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  233,  238, 

240    251. 
Franklin,  James,  247,  251 
Franklin,  Josiah,  237,  240,  254. 
Frothingham,  Langdon,  61. 
Frothingham's     "  History     of 

Charlestown,"  39. 

Gallop,  John,  47. 

Gedney,  Bartholomew,  190. 

George  I,  273. 

George  III,  338. 

Gibbons,    Capt.    Edward,    89, 

103. 
Gilman,  Arthur,  306. 
Glover,  Rev.  Joseph,  222. 
Goffe,  Deputy,  13. 
Goodwin,  John,  198. 
Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando,  1,  6,  7, 

11. 
Gorges,  Robert,  1,  8,  38,  174. 
Governor's  Island,  90,  158. 
Grand  Vizier,  122. 


Index 


363 


Gray,  John  Chipman,  61. 
Green  Dragon  Tavern,  273. 
Green,  Samuel,  152. 
Greenough,  Thomas,  325. 
Greenwich,  6,  7. 
Grenville,  George,  347. 
Gridley,  Jeremiah,  341. 
Groton,  Eng.,  24. 

Hale,    Rev.    Edward   Everett, 

>  272. 

Hallam's  "  History  of  Eng- 
land," 77. 

Hancock,  Dorothy,  326,  357. 

Hancock,   John,  349,  357. 

Harvard  College,  120,  140,  151, 
186,  205-232,  318. 

Harvard,  Rev.  John,  159,  206. 

Haugh,  Atherton,  263. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  41,  43, 
45,  115,  122,  259,  286. 

Haynes,  John,  63. 

Hemans,  Mrs.,  108. 

Henry,  Patrick,  344. 

Higgins,  Mrs.  Napier,  344. 

Hollis  street  church,  307. 

Holyoke,  Rev.  Edward,  318. 

Hopkinton  (Mass.),  320. 

Hull,  Capt,  John,  234,  258,  262. 

Humfry,  John,  15,  52. 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  68,  110, 
111,  114,  117,  118. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  152,  198, 
308,  336,  337,  338,  339,  348, 
349,  350,  359. 

Hutchinson,  William,  112. 

Indian  Meeting-House,  270. 
Ingelow,  Jean,  44. 
"  Ipswich  letter,"  99. 

Jackson,  Richard,  351. 
Jamaica  Pond,  346. 
James  I,  7,  65. 
James  II,  185,  187,  195. 
Jekyl,  John,  311. 
Johnson,     Lady   Arbella,     34, 
38. 


Johnson,  Isaac,  15. 

Kidd,  Captain,  291. 

King's  Chapel,  184,  292,  310, 

311. 
Knight,  Madame,  138. 

Lafayette,  64. 
La  Tour,  Charles,  89-107. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  13,  66,  182. 
Lawrence,  Abbott,  61. 
Lawrence,  Col.  T.  B.,  62. 
Leitch,  Peter,  359. 
Leverett,  John,  127,  137,  230. 
Ley,  Lord  James.  69,  70. 
Liberty  Tree,  339,  350,358. 
Lincoln,  Countess  of,  35,  48. 
Lodge,   Henry  Cabot,   176. 
Long  Island  Historical  Society, 

139. 
Lowell,  John  Amory,  61. 
Ludlow,  Roger,  51. 
Lynde,  Benjamin,  308. 

Marbury,  Francis,  111. 
Mather,  Rev.  Cotton,  38,  151, 

167,  168,  170,  171,  185,  192, 

197,  200,  201,  202,  205,  228, 

270,  301,  302. 
Mather,    Rev.    Increase,    151, 

166,  167,  168,  185,  192,  196, 

205,  222,  224,  227,  261,  274, 

297,  302. 
Mather,  Rev.  Richard,  165. 
Maverick,  Samuel,  8,  70. 
Medford,  12. 
Merry  Mount,  10. 
Molesworth,      Captain      Pon- 

sonby,  334. 
Monk,  George,  152. 
Monk,  Gen.  George,  85. 
Moody,  Rev.  Joshua,  152. 
Morgan,  James,  152,  157. 
Morrell,  Rev.  William,  8,  9. 

Navigation  Act,  338. 
Nason.  Rev.  Elias,  312. 
"  New  England  Courant,"  247, 
251. 


364 


Index 


Norton,  Rev.  John,  133,  134, 

135,  137,  183. 
Norton,  Thomas,  9,  10,  11. 
Newbury,  258. 
Nicholson,  Francis,  301. 
Noddle's  Island,  70. 
Nowell  Increase,  15. 

Oakes,  President,  170. 

"  Old  Feather  Store,"  235. 

Old  Granary  Burying  Ground, 
282 

"  Old  New  England  Churches," 
127   183   282 

"  Old  New' England  Inns,"  22, 
69,  125,  138,  150,  307,  333. 

"  Old  New  England  Roof- 
Trees,"  197,  324. 

Old  South  Church,  127,  177, 
183,  202,  259. 

Oliver,  Andrew,  350. 

Otis,  James,  338,  349. 

Otway's   "  Orphan,"  316. 

Paddock,  Major  Adino,  296. 

Parkman,  Francis,  94. 

Partridge,  Lieut.-Gov.  Will- 
iam, 309. 

Paxton,  Charles,  338,  339. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  87,  255. 

Peters,  Hugh,  63,  116. 

Phillips,  Col.,  173. 

Phillips,  Jonathan,  61. 

Phips,  Lady,  201,  285. 

Phips,  Sir  William,  193,  195, 
196,  203. 

Phipps,  Hon.  Spencer,  308. 

Pitt,  William,  357. 

Plymouth,  Mass.,  7. 

Pontgrave.  91. 

Pope,  290. 

Popham,  Sir  John,  7. 

Port  Royal,  91,  93,  94,  101, 
102,  106,  196. 

Poutrincourt,  91. 

Pownall,  Governor,  334,  335, 
341. 

Pratt  House,  Chelsea,  186. 

Price,  Rev.  Roger,  321. 


Province  House,  285,  287,  288, 

344,  345. 
Pynchon,  William,  15,  17. 

Quakers,  122,  124,  125,  129, 
133,  134,  135,  136,  147. 

Queen  Anne,  272,  294. 

Quincy,  Dorothy,  326,  357. 

Quincy,  Edmund,  308,  326, 
357. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  208,  355. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  1,  6. 
Randolph,  Edward,  173,  174, 

182. 
Ratcliffe,    Rev.    Robert,    158, 

184. 
Remington,  Judge,  310. 
Richards,  John,  190. 
Robinson,  William,  128. 
Royal  Exchange,  333. 
Ryece,  Robert,  27. 

St.  John,  N.  B.,  92. 

Salem,  11. 

Salter,  Thomas,  302. 

Saltonstall,    Richard,    15,    17, 

134. 
Scudder,  Horace  E.,  314. 
Sergeant,  Peter,  190,  285. 
Sewall,  Joseph,  258. 
Sewall,  Henry,  257. 
Sewall,  Samuel,  171,  177,  178, 

180,  183,  187,  201,  202,  229, 

255-282. 
Sewall's  Diary,  125,  138,  167, 

173,  176,  182,  183,  225,  228, 

230. 
Sewel,  123,  135. 
Sharpe,  Thomas,  15. 
Shattock,  Samuel,  132. 
Shawmut,  9,  38. 
Sheafe,  Susanna,  334. 
Shelter  Island,  132. 
Shirley,  William,  311,  312. 
Shrimpton,  Samuel,  190. 
Shute,  Col.  Samuel,  296. 
Sluyter,  Peter,  138. 
Smith,  John,  1,  4. 


Index 


365 


"  Sons  of  Liberty,"  358. 
Southwick,  Cassandra,  128, 129, 

132. 
Southwick,  Daniel,    129,    132. 
Southwick,  Josiah,  128,  129. 
Southwick,  Lawrence,  128, 129, 

132. 
Southwick,      Provided,       129, 

132. 
Sparks,  Jared,  61. 
Stamp  Act,  348,  349,  350,  355, 

350,  357. 
Standish,  Miles,  1. 
Steele,  Sir  Richard,  293. 
Stepney,  269. 

Stevenson,  Marmaduke,  128. 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,   195. 
Stoughton,  William,   144,   190, 

193,  201,  202,  203,  264,  292. 
Stoughton,  Israel,  51. 
Strafford,  Earl  of,   13,  76. 
Sugar  Act,  338. 
Surriage,  Agnes,  316-332. 
Swan,  Mrs.  S.  H.,  326. 

Thacher,  Oxenbridge,  341. 
Thaver,  John  Eliot,  61. 
Townsheml's  Bill,  358. 
Townshend,  Charles,  347. 
Trumbull,  316. 
Tudor,  Frederick,  61. 
Tudor,  William,  340. 
Tyndal,  Sir  John,  24. 

Upham,     Charles  Wentworth, 

64. 
Upshall,  Nicholas,  124,  125. 
Usher,  John,  146. 

Vagabond  Act,  125. 

Vardy,  Luke,  333. 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  63-88,  101, 

113,   117,  260. 
Vassal!,  William,  15. 


Walter,  Abijah,  277,  280. 
Ward,  Edward,  289. 
Warren,  John  Collins,  61. 
Warren,  Dr.  Joseph,  349. 
Waterhouse,  David,  190. 
Wayside  Inn,  324. 
Welde,  Rev.  Thomas,  111. 
Wendell,  Barrett,  167. 
Wesley,  John,  141. 
West,  Nicholas,  15. 
Weston,  Thomas,  1,  7. 
W7eymouth,  1,  7,  8. 
Wheeler,  Sir  Francis,  298. 
Wheelright,  Rev.  John,  74, 112, 

117. 
White,  John,  11. 
Whittier,  126,  129. 
Willard,  Samuel,  227,  228,  230. 
Williams,  Roger,  37,  118,  119, 

120,  133. 
Willis,  Edward,  144. 
Wilkins,  Comfort,  153,  158. 
Wilkins,  Richard,  144. 
Wilson,  Rev.  John,  37,  48,  122, 

134. 
Winslow,  John,  187. 
Winthrop,  Adam,  19. 
Winthrop,  Anne,  19,  20. 
Winthrop,  Deane,  263. 
Winthrop,  John,  15,  16,  18,  21, 

22,  26,  27,  30,  34,  36,  38,  40, 

49,  51,  55,  58,  67,  69,  89,  95, 

98,  99,    112,   118,   175,  205, 

295. 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  29. 
Winthrop,  Margaret,     18,    21, 

24,  30,  50. 
Winthrop,  Mercy,  263. 
Winthrop,  Robert  C,  32. 
Winthrop,    Stephen,  101. 
Winthrop,  Wait,  190. 
Wollaston,  Captain,  9,  10. 
Writs  of  Assistance,  338. 


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